wong food!

Suzie's Farm: Week 6, final week

2011-12-05T20:18:00.000-08:00

I picked up my final week's CSA box from Suzie's Farm on Saturday. It contained the following:

1 head lettuce (8.5 oz)
yellow beans (13.25 oz)
bunch of carrots with greens attached (10.25 oz)
bag of spinach (4.5 oz)
bag of arugula (6 oz)
sweet yellow snap peas (9 oz)
bunch of white turnips (13.5 oz)
1 small Romanesco cauliflower, with lots of leaves attached (1 lb 14 oz)
small crowns of broccoli (11.75 oz)
container of pea greens (4 oz box), originally supposed to be sunflower greens
2 small Sweet Pepper Golden treasure (3 oz)

Can I make anything with the pretty greens attached to the carrots?

I mostly finished everything from last week's box except for the squash and herb mixes. Lots of salads and soups.

Suzie's Farm: Week 5, "Thanksgiving" box

2011-12-03T15:29:00.000-08:00

I picked up my "Thanksgiving" box (it was labeled as such) this weekend from the Poway market. Unfortunately, since it was already Saturday, I didn't get to use the items for Thanksgiving. Some of the items like the herb bouquet would have been nice to have. The Thanksgiving box contained:

butternut squash, in place of the pumpkin (1 lb 12.5 oz)
spring raab, 1 bunch (11 oz)
broccoli (8.5 oz)
bag of arugula (8.25 oz)
bag of chopped spinach (6.25 oz)
purple beans (13.5 oz)
sugar snap peas (13.5 oz)
2 medium acorn squash (2 lb 5.25 oz)
2 large brown onions (1 lb 10.25 oz)
bag of pear tomatoes (14 oz)
wheatberry sprouts (6 oz container)
herb mix (rosemary, thyme, sage) (1.25 oz)

The enclosed note from the farm raves about the "pumpkin pie" pumpkin we were supposed to get in the box, but it looks like they ran out and replaced it with a butternut squash. That was disappointing since I was looking forward to trying the pumpkin. No fruit again, but that's okay because I am loving all the greens this week.

Box Mix-up

2011-11-30T21:00:00.001-08:00

There was no Suzie's Farm Week 4 box posted because I accidentally forgot to pick my box up last week. I had changed my pick-up location to Poway, then gone on vacation for a week, and promptly forgotten that it was still set to Poway. I thought I was picking it up at Hillcrest and fully intended on going there on Sunday. On Saturday afternoon, my error dawned on me and I hurriedly called the farm, leaving them a message and asking whether I could pick it up on Sunday. No answer. I even went to the HFM on Sunday to ask if there was anything they could do. The worker in the booth recommended I sent them an email. I did this when I got home and received a reply on Monday stating that I was out of luck. :(

I know this is my own fault for not picking up the box, but I this was still upsetting and annoying.

What is a trip to Palm Springs without a little Cheeky's?

2011-11-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

Cheeky's has easily become our breakfast place while visiting. The service is attentive and the food is great. Let's not forget about the flight of bacon ($4):

Each time we go it's been different strips. This time it was: extra thick, apple cinnamon, pepper, jalapeno, neuske's. We agreed we liked the jalapeno the best.

Rich had the soft scrambled eggs with English white cheddar and prosciutto ($10). It also came with a side of toast. I tried the buttermilk and fresh corn pancakes with blueberries and bacon ($10). It was 2 large pancakes with corn kernels mixed into it. For some reason, I was envisioning the pancakes to be made from cornmeal but I think I read the description wrong. They charged me $1 to add blueberries, which was disappointing since there didn't seem to be anywhere near $1 worth of blueberries in the pancakes. The pancakes themselves were great though -- fluffy, moist and delicious. I love that they also provide real maple syrup.

It's a semi-expensive breakfast at about $30 for both of us, but until we find a better alternative, we'll stick it out here.

Jake's: Living up to the Hype

2011-11-19T14:06:00.000-08:00

On Saturday night, we decided to try out our surprise favorite from last year, Jake's Ready to Eat. Last year we thought the combination of good service and value made this a win. But had we hyped it up in our minds and would it live up to our expectations again?

Jake's isn't a big restaurant and although our first reservation time slot wasn't available, they were able to reserve a table for us within 15 minutes of the time we originally wanted. This time, we sat on the outside patio, next to a heat lamp and covered by a tent to keep the rain out. With the dim candle on the table and green hedge of a backdrop, it made for a pretty and relaxed atmosphere.

The amuse-bouche was a beet skewer with goat cheese. Two of my favorites!! Rich was generous and let me have his portion. Excellente.

They added a few new items to their menu since the last time we were here, including an option to get a three course meal for $29. A select number of entrees were allowed for this option. Since I was already planning on getting a salad and one of the entrees, this made more sense economically. The organic mixed greens salad was good (no cheese!) and for my entree, I had the fettuccini a la vodka ($16) with heirloom tomatoes. It was very heavy and rich, but also really delicious. I couldn't finish the entire dish.

Rich had the (surprise!) filet mignon ($26) with mashed potatoes and asparagus. He enjoyed it and said he thought it was better than the filet he had the previous day at Chop House.

For dessert, I was allowed to choose anything on the dessert menu. It was a toss up between the toffee banana crunch cake and the coconut cake, but the waiter said the coconut cake was better (hands down). Rich had a giant brownie ($6) which he said was good, but preferred a less cakey brownie. The coconut cake was very good. It was HUGE (3 layers) and moist with delicious cream cheese frosting. None of that gross buttercream stuff. I only wish there was more coconut flavor in the cake itself.

We were stuffed by the time we finished and they still surprised us by bringing out two bites of a pecan tart, just like last year. The owner (guessing?) also came by to ask how everything was. The service was awesome. We love Jake's.

Another weekend in Palm Springs

2011-11-19T13:58:00.000-08:00

We were in Palm Springs again last weekend, trying a few new places as well as a couple of favorites from last year.

First up was the Chop House restaurant for Rich's steak fix. It is right across the street from LG which I found funny but there seemed to be a good number of patrons at both establishments. The decor is dark and reminiscent of a traditional steakhouse. We were seated on the patio which was less stuffy than inside and plenty warm with the overhead heat lamps.

I started with the organic beets salad (without the gorgonzola cheese). It was on the small side for a hefty $9 with maybe only 4 slices of beets total for the entire 1-2 cups worth of salad. It was fine, but I could have easily eaten a double or triple portion.

Rich had the regular (8 oz) filet mignon ($31). He said it was good, but not knock-your-socks off good. It was good enough that he finished his plate though! All of the menu items are a la carte, which in my opinion, just makes dinner more expensive. He had a side of french fries ($5), and was disappointed they didn't carry any potato options he would have liked (i.e. roasted potatoes).

For my "entree", I had two side dishes, the brussel sprouts hash ($7) which was caramelized onions, mushrooms, shredded brussel sprouts and truffle oil and the wild mushroom ragout ($8) which contained a mix of shitake, portabello, chanterelle and button mushrooms. They were a bit too oily for me, but the flavor was very good.

For dessert, we tried the NY style cheesecake ($7) which we both thought was dry and not very good.

Overall, it was a decent but expensive meal. We'd probably go back if we had to, but would rather search out other options.

Suzie's Farm: Week 3

2011-11-08T19:59:00.000-08:00

Since I wasn't able to make it to the Hillcrest Farmer's Market this morning, I arranged to have my box picked up at the Poway Farmer's Market. I like that the Suzie's Farm CSA website allows you to easily switch the location. I had never been to the Poway market before and although it is smaller than Hillcrest, there is still a good number of fruit and veggie booths and not a lot of craft ones (a plus!).

This week's box contained:

red russian kale (5.25 oz)
cabbage cone (1 lb 5.5 oz)
basket of serrano and cherry bomb peppers (6 oz)
more zucchini (2 lb 7.5 oz)
2 bunches onion purplette (4.5 oz)
1 bunch parsley (2.25 oz)
2 golden treasure peppers (4.5 oz)
2 red bell peppers (5.75 oz)
1 red kabocha squash (1 lb 13.25 oz)
1 bunch radish (8.5 oz)
pea shoots (4 oz)
cannellini beans (shelled weight = 4.75 oz)

I'm not sure if I'm not trying as hard to use my produce (possible - I haven't been cooking as much this week) or if Suzie's Farm is giving me more food than the Inland Empire CSA (possible - I was getting their "small" box), but I have a lot of leftover produce from last week. I still have the zucchini (with more zucchini this week!), 1/2 of the onion purplette (I'm finding it hard to figure out what to do with these), radish greens, and some peppers.

I am enjoying the selection so far (with the exception of maybe the 3 weeks of onion purplette and zucchini), and also that most of the box is VEGETABLES! The only other complaint is what to do with all the "hot" peppers. As a person who doesn't eat hot peppers, I have had a basket of them every week. I usually use serrano peppers in salsa, but I don't know if I can use a whole basket of them. And the cherry bombs? Are those hot?? I haven't seen those before. Maybe Maddie the crazy hot-pepper eating dog wants to try one?

Halloween Spookiness

2011-11-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

For Halloween, we had "spooky" chili, cornbread, and a spooky dessert.

The chili contained all ingredients from Suzie's Farm except for the beans. I cut out bat shapes from cheese to make it "spooky." Heh.

For the spooky dessert, I made these Devil's Food Cake cupcakes from Martha Stewart. I generally don't like making cupcakes because they tend to come out dry when I make them, but these were moist and fudgy. My original plan was to fill them with strawberry preserves to make them ooze "blood" when bitten into, but I ran out of time to do this. They were still yummy on their own. And of course, they tasted even better with spooky faces on them!

Suzie's Farm: Week 2

2011-11-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry, it's been a really busy week so no picture this week or weighted values, but I can at least provide the list of items in this week's box:

Suzie's Farm - Week 2 box contents:

acorn squash, 2 small
1 bunch mint
6 small zucchini
2 large brown onions
bag of small tomatoes
two small heads of fennel
mixed sweet peppers (golden treasure, red pimiento)
head of lettuce
basket of habeneros
red russian kale
bunch of radishes
2 bunches of onion purplette

I used a lot of last week's items to make chili for Halloween. I'm still working through the fennel and acorn squash. And the habeneros? I took those into work and didn't dare try them myself. I was coughing just chopping jalapenos the other day.

Lettuce Patch!

2011-10-31T21:29:00.001-07:00

Real gardening at last!

2011-10-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

Landscaping is officially done and I now have a real garden. No more patio container gardening for me! Off to the nursery...

Suzie's Farm: Week 1

2011-10-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

This week I begin a trial run in the next CSA I'm trying as part of the CSA Smackdown:

Suzie's Farm

Suzie's Farm doesn't offer a "trial" period so the shortest subscription you can purchase is 6 weeks. Since there is no trial period, there is also no pesky "new joining/registration" fee that some others have.

Reading some reviews on Yelp, I saw that there were some complaints about the boxes containing too many vegetables and not enough fruit, but for me, this is probably a good thing. :) They also do not allow any substitution of items as Inland Empire did. However, their prices are cheaper. I was on a small box at the Inland Empire CSA for almost $35/box and the small box at Susie's is $18/box. Since the regular size box was only $25 (still less than Inland Empire's small box), I went ahead and signed up for the large box. It was $150 for 6 weeks ($25/box).

I picked up my first box yesterday at the Hillcrest Farmer's Market. The boxes are all in the back of a big truck and they expect you to bring your own bags, transfer the produce to your bags, and break down your box. I checked off my name and put all of the produce into my 2 bags. They were pretty heavy bags when I was done! One nice thing I noticed is that there is a printed list of everything in the box so I know exactly what I'm getting. Another nice thing is that a couple of recipes related to the box contents were also included:

Here is what week 1's box contained:

4 cucumber (2 lb 6.75 oz)
3 green peppers (11.25 oz)
tomatoes (1 lb 3.5 oz)
2 brown onions (1 lb 14 oz)
sweet pepper mix (7.25 oz)
1 butternut squash (1 lb 7.5 oz)
1 bunch mint (1.5 oz)
2 small heads of butter lettuce (9.25 oz)
1 bunch celery (10.5 oz)
purple onions with the greens on (11.75 oz)
8 zucchinis (1 lb 11 oz)
basket of jalapenos (8 oz)
1 green melon (don't know what kind) (7 lb .5 oz)
dragon beans (8 oz)

The interesting items in the bunch were the dragon beans:

What am I going to do with these?

Otherwise, I'm thinking this box screams CHILI.

What is it?

2011-10-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of the final melon from the Inland Empire CSA. What is it??

Whatever it was, it was sweet and delicious. The watermelon and oranges were also especially sweet. Tomatoes were too ripe and several went bad in a couple of days.

I finished all of the produce this week from the CSA except for a few lemons and an orange.

Very Best Vegan Bac'n

2011-10-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

I signed up to be a recipe tester for an upcoming vegan cookbook. First recipe...

Vegan Tofu Bacon!

Or should I say Facon?

I was excited to try this recipe since the MorningStar vegetarian bacon strips I've sampled in the past aren't vegan (they contain egg whites and milk) and it would be nice to have an acceptable substitute. Also, I don't know about you, but I like recipes that have non-scary ingredient lists. Look at the ingredients in the MorningStar strips:

EGG WHITES, SOYBEAN OIL WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS, TEXTURED SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, WHEAT GLUTEN, HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (CORN GLUTEN, WHEAT GLUTEN, SOY), CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF GLYCERIN, SALT, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, SODIUM CITRATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, SUGAR, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS FROM NON-MEAT SOURCES, TORULA YEAST, CARAMEL COLOR, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM TRIPOLYPHOSPHATE, NATURAL SMOKE FLAVOR, MALIC ACID, GUAR GUM, YEAST EXTRACT, LOCUST BEAN AND GUAR GUM, SODIUM SULFITE, CARRAGEENAN, RED #3, DISODIUM INOSINATE, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, NIACINAMIDE, IRON [FERROUS SULFATE], AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, NONFAT DRY MILK, YELLOW #6, VITAMIN B1 [THIAMIN MONONITRATE], VITAMIN B6 [PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE], VITAMIN B2 [RIBOFLAVIN], CITRIC ACID, CYANOCOBALAMIN.

I'm not even sure what half of those ingredients are and some of them are downright scary. What are "natural and artificial flavors" anyway?

This recipe was pretty easy. Although I'm not allowed to print the actual recipe, it involved marinating sliced tofu for a few hours before either pan-frying or baking them. None of the ingredients included TBHQ, Yellow #6, or sodium sulfite.

The result?

Not bad, but a bit too salty to me! If I sliced the tofu thin enough and cooked them long enough, they crisped up just like the Facon. They were good eating alongside scrambled tofu and in a FLT (Facon Lettuce Tomato) sandwich. If I was craving bacon, I'd make these over both real bacon (hello saturated fat!) and the processed and pricey vegetarian bacon strips.

Inland Empire CSA: Mystery Week 5 box

2011-10-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

It turns out I had another box waiting for me from the Inland Empire CSA. I'm not sure what happened or why I have another box, but I'm not complaining!

This time, the note under my name said "no grapefruit" and there was ZERO grapefruit in the box.

Week 5's box:

1 bag arugula (6.25 oz)
fingerling potatoes (1 lb 1/2 oz), not pictured
heirloom tomatoes (2 lb 4.75 oz)
6 round zucchini (2 lb 5.75 oz)
romaine head (9.75 oz)
mystery melon (2 lb 6.5 oz)
part of a large seeded watermelon (3 lb 12.5 oz), not pictured
2 ears corn (1 lb 9 oz)
3 lemons (10.75 oz)
5 oranges (1 lb 11 oz)
1 eggplant (9.75 oz)

I should be able to use all of the contents this week... but I'm wondering what I'll do with all of the zucchini...

Beet Burgers

2011-10-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

I read this article from the Union Tribune on different veggie burgers around town. I'm always looking for good meat-free options and the article made mention of a few I haven't tried yet. Although I have been to Neighborhood, I had their black bean burger while there and not the beet burger. Imagine - a restaurant that carries not one but TWO homemade veggie patty options!

Since I didn't see myself going to Neighborhood any time in the next few weeks and we had a BBQ to cook for (with vegetarians coming), I tried making the beet burger recipe from the article.

The wide range of ingredients made it a time-consuming recipe to make, especially if you make the seitan from scratch. But the result was worth it. Beautifully pink-red patties with a nice texture, the vegetarians and I loved them.

Here's one shown with sliced heirloom tomatoes, red onion, and hummus spread on the bun:

Beet Burgers
Serves 10 (as 6-ounce patties)

Craig Jimenez, the chef at East Village’s Neighborhood, recommended this recipe for do-it-yourself cooks. He suggested using the freshest ingredients possible, which contributes to consistent texture.

“We are looking for the same salivation we get from eating an aged beef burger — its juiciness, flavor, bite resistance,” Jimenez said.

Note from Veggie Choices: The beet burger is just as mouthwatering to non-meat eaters.

4 to 6 large striped beets, (roasted, then peeled, then grated)
1 1/2 cups lightly roasted cooked chickpeas
1 to 1 1/2 cups toasted and ground flaxseed
1 cup cooked red quinoa; cooked according to package directions, then lightly roasted in a sauté pan
1 cup prepackaged plain seitan or homemade seitan (recipe follows)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon roasted garlic
Coarse sea salt, to taste
Freshly ground black Tellicherry peppercorns, to taste

Combine all ingredients until they form a ball. Add more toasted ground flaxseed for the right consistency. It should come together smoothly and not be dry or too soft or mushy. Remember, the texture of each ingredient should be visible and provide bite.

When your patties are shaped to a 1/2-inch thickness, sauté in a nonstick pan. Place on a toasted whole-wheat bun and top with aged cheddar or Gruyere cheese, fresh tomatoes, red onions, butter lettuce, pickles and spicy brown mustard. Chipotle hummus also makes a nice spread.

Homemade Seitan

2011-10-16T16:39:00.000-07:00

Ever since I found out that the fake meat they serve at most vegetarian restaurants is "wheat gluten", I've wanted to try making it myself. Call it a weird food fascination. I finally had a reason try making it a couple of weeks ago. I was making veggie burgers and the recipe called for homemade seitan. What was even better was that the recipe included a seitan recipe to make it at home.

It was relatively easy and the final product is... not bad. I haven't passed final judgment on it yet, mostly because I haven't made anything with it except for the veggie burgers. The veggie burgers had a lot of other ingredients included and I couldn't tell where the seitan was hiding. Like tofu, seitan doesn't really have a distinct flavor and instead soaks up the flavor of whatever it is cooked with.

The recipe was simple and didn't involve too many ingredients... just vital wheat gluten, some spices and a mix of water and veggie brother. I followed the instructions exactly and kneaded the dough as required.

Much kneading and resting later, I had an unappetizing brown log of sponginess. I cut the dough into strips and boiled it in veggie broth for 45 minutes.

It greatly expanded in size. After 45 minutes, the pieces were drained and rinsed in cool water to prevent further cooking. They still looked unappetizing, but then again, most fake meat does.

Homemade Seitan Gluten Dough
This can be made ahead of time.

2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten Flour [I used the Arrowhead Mills brand]
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/4 cups water or vegetable broth
3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water

Combine dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Separately, combine liquid ingredients. Add wet dough to dry with a fork and knead. Rest the dough for 10 minutes, then knead for 5 minutes, folding it into the middle. Roll the dough into an oblong shape with a diameter of 4 to 5 inches. Rest for another 10 minutes.

Bring the broth and water mixture to a simmer.

Cut dough (it should feel tacky) into 2-inch strips, cover and simmer in the broth for 45 minutes. Add more water if needed. Strain out the liquid and rinse under cool running water. Dough can keep in the fridge for 3 days.

Inland Empire CSA: Wrap up

2011-10-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

This week marks the end of the 4-week trial with the Inland Empire CSA. We had a lot of food to finish up from the BBQ we hosted last weekend, so I didn't do as well finishing last week's CSA contents. I still have an apple, 1/2 bag of arugula, the watermelon, the green beans, and 2 grapefruits (surprised?). I plan on taking this week "off" and officially starting the next CSA next Sunday.

Since this was my first CSA, I don't have much to compare it to, but here are some things I liked and didn't like about the Inland Empire CSA:

Yay

a good amount of fruits and veggies for me (one person, voracious produce eater), although I did supplement by buying greens for the week
ability to swap out items I didn't want at the farmer's market

Blah

cost seems higher when I compared it to other CSAs
most of the produce needed to be eaten immediately (e.g. the tomatoes were almost over-ripe and would get moldy in a day)
too much grapefruit, but more importantly, they ignored their own message to not put grapefruit in my box!

Maple Blondies with Butterscotch and Chocolate

2011-10-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of maple syrup to use up soon (thanks Costco!) and was looking for a treat that would use some for the monthly potluck. This recipe from "The Ultimate Brownie Book" uses a half cup of pure maple syrup and was exactly what I was looking for at 7 pm when I didn't want to go out to buy something I needed. I had all of the ingredients I needed in the house. I opted not to use cocoa nibs and did a mix of half butterscotch chips and half chocolate chips (3/4 cup each).

This was a fairly sweet, maple-flavored... cake. I wouldn't exactly call them blondies. They weren't bad by any means... I just expected something else. The "blondies" were moist and light in texture with hints of sugary maple and a nice kick of chocolate.

I probably won't make them again since I don't enjoy cake-y brownies, but there was no shortage of people trying them at the potluck.

Inland Empire CSA: Week 4

2011-10-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

We had a BBQ at our house on Sunday so Kameran picked up my final box from the Inland Empire CSA at the farmer's market. Obviously I didn't trade anything out. I was a bit annoyed to find 3 grapefruits in the box again, especially because I noticed that they had a noted under my named label: Note: No grapefruit

Apparently the person packing the box did not read that part, or didn't care!

Week 4's box:

heirloom tomatoes (1 lb 2.5 oz) - probably more than double this, because I had cut some up for the BBQ before I weighed them
bag of arugula (8.75 oz)
small bag of green beans (8 oz)
small watermelon (5 lb 3.25 oz)
3 large grapefruits (2 lb 4 oz)
8 oranges (2 lb 14.25 oz)
4 yellow squash (13.5 oz)
2 small green bell peppers (5.75 oz)
2 green apples (9.25 oz)
2 onions, brown (10.25 oz)
3 small heads garlic (2.5 oz)
1 bag fingerling potatoes (15.25 oz)
2 melons, not sure what kind (2 lb 11.25 oz)
1 small melon with green stripes, not sure what kind (14 oz)
2 small heads of garlic

I did pretty well with week 3's box, finishing almost everything except for the onions and garlic. Those keep longer though so I'm not worried about using them up.

What to do with the long green eggplants?

2011-09-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

Since the person at Sage Mountain Farm told me these were Thai eggplants, I thought I'd try to make a Thai eggplant dish from them. I loosely based it off of this recipe but found it too salty (and I used half of the soy sauce than the recipe called for). I also added cashews for crunch, though peanuts probably would have been better (didn't have any).

It was edible and "okay" but I'll keep looking for a better recipe.

Tomato "Chirashi" (Scattered Sushi)

2011-09-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I had about a pound of gorgeous heirloom tomatoes from the CSA that were about to expire pretty soon. I just so happened to be reading Shape and they had an article on tomato recipes. Even though Shape isn't exactly high on my list for recipe sources, this one appealed to me. Tomato sushi??? What an odd mix of flavors.

I made the recipe as written, except that I didn't have any scallions. It tasted like sushi rice with fresh tomatoes with a nice vinegar dressing. It was delicious and a good way to use up those tomatoes!

Tomato "Chirashi" (Scattered Sushi)
Serves 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

2 1/3 cup water
1 cup short-grain brown rice
1 T sugar
1 T rice vinegar
1/3 tsp coarse salt
1 lb tomatoes in different shapes, sizes, and colors
2 scallions (white and green parts), trimmed and thinly sliced
2 T reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 T mirin
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

In a large saucepan, bring water to boil. Stir in rice; reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about 40 minutes or until rice is tender. Turn off heat and let pot rest, covered for 10 minutes. [I just cooked the rice in my handy rice cooker - MUCH EASIER]

Meanwhile, whisk together sugar, vinegar, and salt for about 2 minutes or until sugar has dissolved completely.

Transfer warm rice to a large bowl. Drizzle a little vinegar mixture over rice and cut across rice using a wooden rice paddle or spoon. Continue drizzling and cutting, then gently scoop paddle under rice and turn over a few times to evenly distribute mixture. Divide rice among four shallow bowls.

Cut large tomatoes into wedges and halve cherry, pear and/or grape tomatoes. Divide evenly among bowls of rice and top each with scallion.

Whisk together soy, mirin, ginger and sesame oil. Drizzle an even portion over each bowl of chirashi and garnish with sesame seeds.

Inland Empire CSA: Weeks 2 and 3

2011-09-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

Since I'm already in week 3 of the Inland Empire CSA, I'll do a recap and post what was in each box.

Week 2's box:

heirloom tomatoes (3 lb 5.5 oz)
3 large grapefruits
oranges (1 lb 2.25 oz)
fingerling potatoes (12.75 oz)
2 small heads of garlic
3 small passionfruits (3.5 oz)
3 small onions, brown (6 oz)
1 Thai? eggplant (5.5 oz)
bag of arugula (10.5 oz)
melon (not sure what type) (2 lb 1.5 oz)
bunch of radishes, which I swapped out for a bunch of collards

I did pretty well with Week 1's box and was able to eat everything in it. The only thing I didn't particularly enjoy were the radishes. I don't normally buy them and were at a loss at what to do with them. I tried putting them in a salad but found they had too much bite for me. I sauteed them a bit and they tasted "okay" but not wonderful. I ended up giving the rest away to a coworker who loves radishes. However, I was able to eat the radish greens. I sauteed those up with some cauliflower and made a curry out of it.

I had some lazy lunches and dinners (i.e. went out to eat) during week 2 so I wasn't able to use everything up. By the end of week 2, I still had 1.5 grapefruits, 1 passionfruit, 1 onion, the eggplant, and 1/2 of the arugula.


week 3 box

Today I picked up the box for week 3. There were 3 large grapefruits in it again. I like grapefruit and the ones I had were very sweet, but there is only so much of it I can eat! I swapped those out for several bunches of green leaf lettuce and one small bunch of Swiss chard.

Week 3's box:

fingerling potatoes (1 lb)
4 brown onions (1 lb 6 oz)
bunch of collards (8.25 oz)
bunch of radishes (1 lb)
heirloom tomatoes (2 lb 1.5 oz)
green leaf lettuce (1 lb)
swiss chard (11.5 oz)
yellow crookneck squash (1 lb 2.75 oz)
3 cucumbers (1 lb 1.5 oz)
4 Thai eggplants (8.75 oz)
melon, not sure what kind? (2 lb, .75 oz)
melon, not sure what kind (2 lb 6.25 oz)

Looks like I have to figure out something to do with the Thai eggplants. And what to do with the radishes?!

Inland Empire CSA: Week 1

2011-09-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

The day I signed up with Inland Empire CSA, one of the workers was able to make a box up for me and I took one home. The four week trial for a small, weekly box costs $140 ($10 is a one-time processing/joining fee) which works out to $35/box. One feature I like about this CSA is that they allow you to swap out things you may not want if you pick your box up at the farmer's market.

Week 1's box contained:

basket of figs
salad greens (9 oz)
collards, 2 bunches (12.5 oz)
1 large grapefruit
bunch of carrots (11.25 oz)
1 cucumber
bunch of green onions (6 oz)
zucchinis (1 lb 5 oz)
summer squash (9.5 oz)
2 melons (not sure what type these were), (2 lb 2.75 oz)
brown onions (8 oz)
1 bunch radishes (8.25 oz)
heirloom tomatoes (1 lb 9.75 oz)

I know it's "type-A"-ish that I actually weighed everything but it's the engineer in me! How else am I going to be able to compare?

CSA Smackdown!

2011-09-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to try a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for a long time. I love the idea of supporting local farmers, getting organic fruits and vegetables for less, and being challenged to make new dishes out of things I normally wouldn't eat. My two main issues have always been price and consumption. I shop at farmer's markets and some of the cheaper grocery stores and think I do pretty well and am able to buy a lot of produce for my money. I am also nervous about that I wouldn't be able to finish an entire box of fruits and veggies by myself.

A few weeks ago, Kameran and I were at the Hillcrest farmer's market and after talking with Sage Mountain Farm, I finally decided to bite the bullet and sign up for a four-week trial period with Inland Empire CSA.

I was able to take home a box that day, and when I got home, I did a little more research on the various CSAs in the San Diego area. I might have done "okay" but based on reviews, I may want to try other CSAs as well and compare them. This will be my little experiment to document what I get in each week's box, what I make with the items, and which one is the most "worth it" for me. Who knows, maybe I'll fail miserably and none will work out. Or I may find something a whole new way of buying produce and eating... stay tuned!

Cha Siu Bao (BBQ Pork Buns)

2011-06-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

I've been craving a lot of Asian food lately, particularly Chinese pork buns. Kameran and I tried it a couple times before using this recipe, Pork Buns -AllRecipes.com, but it just didn't quite hit the delicousness you find at restaurants. Thinking back to one of the Asian food websites I do like, I decided to search on JustBento.com and JustHungry.com. Sure enough, I found two great recipes:

Cha Siu (BBQ pork)

Steamed Buns With Roast Pork Filling

I followed the recipes and although a little time consuming, it was definitely worth it. The only thing I would change is maybe add a little more sugar to the BBQ pork meat. The restaurants seem to be a bit sweeter with their meat. Oh and FYI, pork cushion is the 99 Ranch name for pork shoulder.

My pictures definitely don't do it justice as I don't have parchment paper and just ended up using spinach instead (notice the little green bits creeping up the side of my buns :P). Also my bamboo steamer is in storage so I was forced to use a metal steamer that has handles that would hit the bun :-\. Either way, still tasty!

Baked S'mores

2011-05-31T16:14:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, we went camping. The hubby decided he wanted s'mores. I'm not a fan of marshmallows and find s'mores a bit too sweet. After camping, we had a lot of leftover graham crackers and marshmallows. I decided to make a dessert for baked s'mores. I found this recipe but was a little hesitant to try it. I made her red velvet cupcakes previously and wasn't impressed so was a little weary to try this recipe. I followed it exactly except used graham cracker toppings instead of Ferrero Rocher. The marshmallows were very difficult to spread. I would advise melting them in increments of 10 seconds and doing it in a 4 batches to make it easier to spread. Mine came out in a big lump of marshmallows that was difficult to spread. So I had to make some smaller batches anyway to help coat the top. Broiling the marshmallows only needed about 1 minute as mine started to slightly burn at the 1 minute mark. The end result was delicious! I thought the dessert would come out really sweet but it wasn't. The graham cracker crust and chocolate cake on top was a great combination. Adding nutella on the top with little bits of graham crackers added the perfect touch. What did you think?

Giant Strawberries Strawberry Pie

2011-03-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Since being pregnant, I have been eating a lot more fruits. Every time I go to Costco, I decide on 2 fruits to buy and finish them all in about a week. Costco had 4 pound of strawberries for $6.99 the past few times I've been there. The first time I got them, I finished all 4 lbs on my own in less than a week. They are giant strawberries and very sweet. The second time I got them, I decided to make a strawberry pie.

I bought store bought crust because I find it a pain to make it on my own. After baking the crust in the oven according to directions, I coated the bottom and 1/2 of the sides of the crust with a thin layer of chocolate. I often find strawberry pie to be soggy because of the glaze. The chocolate will prevent mushy crust.

For the glaze, put about 8 oz of strawberries and 3/4 cup of sugar into the food processor. After processing, add the mixture to a pot and bring it to boil. In a separate bowl, mix 3/4 cup of water with 3 tbsp of cornstarch. After the strawberry mixture boils, add the cornstarch/water to the pot. Stir until it thickens.

Arrange the 24 oz of strawberries in the baked crust, pour strawberry glaze over berries. Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours so the glaze will set. Top with whipped cream and serve.

We devoured the pie! The entire pie was gone in less than a day! One of our guest tasters said it was so good he couldn't believe how fast he gobbled it up. That's what I like to hear...

Very Dense Red Velvet Cupcakes

2011-03-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

Last year, I made purple velvet cupcakes for my mother-in-law's birthday. Since then, I have been searching for a red velvet cake recipe that actually tasted good. A recipe where people said "mmm, I want some more." I was watching this show called "The Next Great Baker" and contestant, Pam, made red velvet cupcakes that won her the top award during that challenge. I found her blog and recipe. So I decided to make her version and hoped they were to die for.

I followed her recipe completely and the results were a little disappointing. The cupcakes looked good and were very red. But they only tasted slightly better than okay. The flavor was good but the cupcakes were too dense. They weren't at all fluffy and didn't taste like cake. The recipe made 24 cupcakes and good thing I was able to give them all away. I guess I'll have to continue my search for a better red velvet recipe.

PB + Jelly = always a good combo

2011-03-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

These have been on my "to try" list for quite a while.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

The only changes I made were to use raspberry preserves instead of jelly (yuck), use 1/2 whole wheat flour, and a little less sugar. Even though I had never made the recipe before, they tasted great to me! I also did not line the pan with parchment and just used non-stick cooking spray. The dough was easy to work with and I was able to spread it with my fingers.

I gave them all away and am now wishing I had some left!

Southern Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Strawberries.

2011-01-29T18:39:00.000-08:00

For hubby's birthday this year, I decided to make 2 desserts. I made chocolate hazelnut cupcakes for his actual birthday and a southern lemon cake for his birthday weekend (which involved his parent's company).

The chocolate hazelnut cupcakes came from a cupcake book that I got from my sister-in-law 2 years ago. The book hasn't been too successful in providing good recipes. I've used it to make Rocky Road cupcakes and Purple Velvet Cupcakes. Neither recipes were that great! I decided to give the book one last chance to impress me and if it didn't succeed, then the book was history. The chocolate hazelnut cupcakes were decent. They were edible but nothing to brag over. The cupcake part was a bit on the dry side but it might be because I halved the recipe. I won't even attempt to add the recipe to our blog though since it's not something I'd make again. The book will stay on my shelf from now...

I've been watching TLC's The Next Great Baker for the past 8-10 weeks. It's one of those shows where candidates compete to win money and a chance to be hired on as "The Next Great Baker" in Carlos' Bakery. Every time I watch the show, I get hungry for cake. I'm not much of a cake fan at all. But the cake designs are so appealing and some of the things the candidates bake look delicious. In one episode, Dana makes a Southern Lemon Cake. The judges are blown away by his cake. Since then, hubby has been talking about Dana's Southern Lemon Cake. So for hubby's birthday weekend with his parents, I decided to make a Southern Lemon Cake.

I searched hard for Dana's recipe on the internet, but of course it is no where to be found. I looked up some recipes for southern lemon cake and lemon cake. I ended up using this recipe from All Recipes but with a few modifications based on some reviews and things that I wanted in a lemon cake.

Southern Lemon Cake

Ingredients

3 cups cake flour
(I didn't have cake flour so I used all-purpose flour. 1 cup cake flour = 1 cup all-purpose flour minus 2 tbsp of flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 eggs, separated whites and yolks
2 cups white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 grated lemons, zested
1 1/2 lemons juiced
1 small container lemon yogurt

Directions

1. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Set mixture aside.

2. Separate the eggs -- egg whites and yolks. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/2 cup of the sugar, beating until stiff glossy peaks form. Set aside. (I actually did this all by hand. It was tough work.)

3. Cream butter or margarine and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Add egg yolks, lemon zest, and lemon juice together until fluffy. Add flour mixture alternately with the yogurt to the egg yolk mixture. Gently fold in the egg whites and pour the batter into the prepared pans. (I used 2 8" round cake pans.)

4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 35 minutes or until cake comes out clean. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling.

The lemon cake came out dense, almost like a pound cake. The lemon flavor wasn't too tart or overpowering. I might actually add a little more lemon juice or lemon yogurt. Other than that, it was delicious!

On The Next Great Baker, Dana makes his Southern Lemon Cake with a cream cheese frosting and tops it with strawberries. I found a cream cheese frosting recipe on All Recipes that got close to 2000 reviews at 4.5 our of 5 stars.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar.

Add vanilla and confectioners' sugar to taste. Some reviewers said this frosting was too soft, too sweet, not sweet enough, not enough vanilla, etc. I followed the recipe exactly because it was just right for my taste. It would be perfect with a carrot cake or red velvet cake as well. To change it up, I might add some food coloring, change the vanilla to almond extract, or maybe add some cocoa powder for a chocolate frosting. It's definitely a recipe to keep.

With the cake baked and cream cheese frosting made, I had my first chance to decorate my cake. I cut off the tops of the cakes to even them out for a flat surface.

I frosted the first cake.

Topped it off with sliced strawberries.

Added the second cake.

And frosted the entire cake, topping it off with a few strawberries.

Let me say, getting the cake to be smooth is a big challenge. It's no wonder people use fondant. It probably makes a difference to have the cake tools to help smooth the frosting, which I don't have.

And Voila! My version of Southern Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Strawberries.

A huge hit! The cake and frosting tasted great with the strawberries (or any berries). It wasn't too sweet, too lemon-like or anything. And for once, I actually ate all the frosting off my cake. (I usually pick off all frosting from cakes.) My in-laws asked for a small piece of cake, probably because it looked really sweet with the frosting. After their first piece, they immediately helped themselves for seconds. As for my hubby -- Happy Birthday Honey Bunches!

Perfectly Spiced Paella with Saffron Rice

2011-01-27T12:21:00.000-08:00

The hubby's birthday was yesterday and I decided to venture off and make paella. My taste pallet has changed a bit since getting pregnant. Creamy foods don't appeal to meal. Savory foods with lots of spices are usually what I am seeking for. And my dessert cravings have gone down a bit...except when I watch cake shows on TV. Paella was a good choice because it has a lot of different spices, it's savory, and I can eat shrimp (no oysters or clams in this paella). I found this recipe on All Recipes but I changed it up quite a bit based on my party size of 2 and my desire to add in more vegetables. Here's what I did:

Saffron Rice
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 large pinch saffron threads
1 bay leaf
1/4 bunch Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
1 lemon, zested

Heat olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Stir in garlic, red pepper flakes, and rice. Cook, stirring, to coat rice with oil, about 3 minutes. Stir in saffron threads, bay leaf, parsley, chicken stock, and lemon zest. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer 20-25 minutes.

Paella Topping
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
10-15 baby portabells mushrooms, sliced
1 red bell pepper diced

Mix all this in a bowl and marinade

1/2 onion, chopped
12 oz chorizo sausage, casings removed and crumbled
16 oz shrimp (I bought frozen shrimp, already deveined and cooked.)
16 oz diced tomatoes
1 cup of frozen peas

Heal olive oil in separate, large skillet over medium heat. Stir in marinated chicken and onion until almost cooked. Stir in sausage and thoroughly cook meats. Stir in shrimp bell pepper mushrooms, diced tomatoes and frozen peas. Cover and bring to boil. Mix topping with rice and serve.

The rice was just the right amount for a part of 2 (with a day of left overs). And the topping made a serving for about 8-10. It was a lot. Both were delicious. The saffron rice was amazing and had a lot of great flavors and spices. It was the perfect color of yellow too with bits of green from the parsley and red from the saffron. The paella topping was cooked great as well. I'd probably cut the chorizo and shrimp in half since we had so much left over. It might be because I added in more vegetables though as the original recipe didn't have the mushrooms, tomatoes or frozen peas.

Tang Ho (Chrysanthemum) Sushi!

2011-01-23T20:43:00.000-08:00

When Jen and I took the How to Make Vegetarian Sushi class at Great News Cooking with Mineko Takane Moreno, author of Sushi for Dummies, one of my favorite rolls we had in that class was chrysanthemum sushi with a peanut-miso sauce. Unfortunately this great recipe was not in her book. I always wanted to make it again, but never could find chrysanthemum at my local 99 Ranch. Jen ended up finding out that the Chinese word for chrysanthemum was "tang ho" and that they sold it at 99 Ranch. Sure enough, I found it and had some delicious sushi for dinner!

Mongolian Beef

2011-01-23T20:31:00.000-08:00

After having some success with Mapo Tofu from tweaking the recipe at rasamalaysia.com, I thought I would try their Mongolian Beef Recipe. I cannot say I was a huge fan. It definitely needs some tweaking but I'm quite not sure where.... Still looking for some staple Chinese recipes.

Caramel-Topped Semolina Cake

2011-01-11T08:17:00.000-08:00

I saw Dorie make this on Martha Stewart's show in December and was interested. A cake that used farina as its base and contained no butter? This I have to try! It also looked easy and quick, which it was.

I mostly followed the directions, except I used a 9" cake pan since I don't own any 8" ones. The cake came out very flat. I also used almond milk instead of whole milk since I never have cow's milk in the house. I've made it twice now and both times I had trouble flipping the cake over after it was done baking. The first time was probably my fault. I forgot to run a knife around the edge in my haste and the edges stayed stuck in the cake pan. The second time, I sprayed the pan with non-stick spray and ran the knife around but I think the non-stick spray made the cake move too much within the pan and it squished itself to one side. I guess if I try this again, I won't use non-stick spray and I'll just run the knife around the edges?

Despite my troubles, you should try this cake. I hesitate to even call it that, as it is very custard-y in texture and not like a cake in the traditional sense. It is almost flan-like, but much more delicious. Jon didn't care for it, saying that I've made better, but Rich and I devoured it.

Caramel-Topped Semolina Cake

Nine-Ten: Mercy of the Chef

2011-01-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

Jon and I finally got around to celebrating our birthdays (only 2 months late!) and went to Nine-Ten last night. It was my first time for dinner and Jon's first time ever. The restaurant is small and located within The Grand Colonial Hotel on Prospect Street in La Jolla. We didn't have any problems finding street parking on a Wednesday evening, but they do offer valet (for a fee).

I made the reservation through OpenTable and noticed that they surprisingly read my requests because we were seated in a private area and they knew it was Jon's birthday. I was beginning to think no one ever read my requests because they were never honored!

The service was stellar and attentive, without being snobby or pretentious. Almost immediately after being seated, we were given two complimentary flutes of rosé champagne to celebrate the birthday dinner as well as fresh bread.

Jon decided on this restaurant because we were both interested in their "Mercy of the Chef" dinner, which is a 5-course tasting menu of dishes created by the chef's inspiration for $70. We were each brought different items which was great because we were able to sample 10 different dishes!

I am not going to be able to list the details of every dish (sauces, garnishes, etc) because they were quite lengthy and I can't remember them all... even the server struggled to tell us what everything was and couldn't remember the exact names of things!

amuse-bouche:
This was a bite of salmon. It tasted very fresh and not "fishy" at all.

First course: salads

Jon: salmon salad with pieces of potato salad, topped with potato chips and roe

Jen: shaved cucumber salad with watercress and truffle oil (sorry this was taken in the middle of eating it because all other pictures were blurred)

These were both very good.

Second course: seafood

Jon: salmon with pomegranate and pureed celery root

Jen: swordfish with fingerling potatoes and olives

I liked these also. I generally don't care for swordish because it's too chewy/tough but these pieces were very tender.

Third course: main

Jon: lamb with yellow and pureed red beets and greens

Jen: turbot over some kind of vegetable with a truffle sauce

The turbot was very buttery and cooked perfectly. I couldn't figure out what else it was served with - seemed like some kind of shredded vegetable underneath it. Jon's lamb was also good. We both think lamb as being too "gamey" for us but this didn't taste like that. His was served with some kind of dark leafy green that I loved - seemed like it was a Chinese green of some sort.

Fourth course: cheese plates

Jon: goat's milk cheese and quince

Jen: a harder, peppery cheese (can't remember the name), toasted almonds

Both were served with different types of bread, including an interesting walnut bread.

Fifth course: dessert

Jon: coffeecake topped with bacon, butternut squash ice cream

Jen: chocolate mousse with creme fraiche, coffee, and banana ice cream

We both got candles on our plates! Although beautifully plated, I was not as impressed with my dessert. Jon's seemed so much more inventive and unique.

They also gave us a couple of complimentary truffles (sorry, no picture) at the end that were good. Overall, I enjoyed the experience. Though very expensive for us, the food was high-quality, tasted good, and the service was excellent. Definitely a splurge though!

Happy Birthday to us!

2010 Holiday Goodies

2010-12-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

Every year I bake cookies for The Wong Family + friends. This year was no exception. I usually spend hours perusing various sources (magazines, cookbooks, forums, blogs) for holiday worthy treats. If I were more organized, I would actually try some of these out ahead of time, but I'm not that organized. :) I trust most of the sources will yield deliciousness. If not, there is always the almond toffee I make yearly.

Here is what I made:

Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread
(Dorie Greenspan)

These were very popular on the internet. They are a sturdy shortbread cookie containing espresso powder that yields a "cookies and cream" appearance. The chunks of dark chocolate scattered into the dough give the cookie a good chocolate bite without the cookie tasting like a decidedly "chocolate cookie". They tasted great with coffee... or a latte.

Very easy to make. The idea of using a zip-loc bag to roll out the dough is brilliant. I couldn't get mine to look particular "pretty" but they still tasted great.

Ina Garten's Rugelach

I've made rugelach in the past and always swear it is the LAST time. It is time-consuming, the dough is always hard to work with, and mine always seem to break and/or look ugly. But they taste divine! I have made Lora Bordy's Rugelach many times in the past but this year I decided to try Ina Garten's wondering if it would be any easier.

I'm not sure if it was the recipe (they actually look very similar when you compare the two) or if I just resigned myself knowing it would take a long time and therefore had more patience this year, but the process of making them was "not bad." I did lots of chilling though... I chilled the dough after it had been divided into 4 parts... then chilled it again after it had been rolled out into 9" circles... then chilled the cookies themselves before baking. It saved some frustration with the dough falling apart while I tried rolling them up.

Mine still never come out as picture-perfect or pretty as I've seen elsewhere, but they taste divine. :)

Nutella Nutters
(St. Petersburg Times)

When I saw this recipe, I knew I was making this one. Nutella + Peanut Butter cannot equal anything but awesomeness. These cookies also contain no flour which make them a naturally gluten-free cookie. They were easy to make with all ingredients I had on hand. These are rich, sweet, chocolate-y and chewy -- tasting of all things good: nutella and peanut butter!

Curry Coriander Shorties

(Gourmet, September 2009)

These were my surprise favorite of the bunch. I had read about this cookie on an online forum thread about unusual Christmas cookies. These shortbread cookies use savory spices to make them taste different. They smelled lovely while baking and had a really different complex flavor to them. I'm wondering if anyone will guess what it is, since I didn't label the cookies this year. Definitely my favorite of the bunch, but we'll see what everyone else thinks...

Surprise-Filled Cookies (Jam Thumbprints)

(Mrs. Fields cookbook)

I wanted another fruity cookie to add to the assortment and settled on these. I had made one in the past with a cream cheese dough that wasn't very easy to work with and decided to try this recipe from Mrs. Field's instead. There is no cream cheese in the dough and the resulting cookie tastes somewhere between a sugar and butter cookie.

I didn't follow the directions to use a melon baller for depositing the jam and instead used my fingers as I would in a normal jam thumprint. I used a mixed-berry jam which contained raspberries, cherries, and boysenberries. The cookies looked pretty and tasted as one would have expected -- fruity and sweet -- but I wasn't wowed by them. Still would like to find a good jam thumbprint...

Aunt Anne's Sesame Cookies

(allrecipes.com)

I have to admit I was a bit worried about these after I bought the anise extract. I wasn't quite sure what anise was and when I opened the bottle and took a whiff, I didn't think I liked it. The anise flavor is very subtle though. These are a slightly sweet, butter cookie with a very slight hint of anise and sesame seed flavor. They were easy to make and looked pretty when done. They're a nice addition to round out the sweetness of most holiday cookies.

Whew, that was one big baking extravaganza. No more cookies for a while...

Crispy Salted Oat Cookies

2010-12-13T21:41:00.000-08:00

I wanted to like these. Really, I did. I normally like the combination of salty-sweet... eggs that accidentally touch the pancake syrup... maple bacon... salted caramels... mmmm... but something about these were just a little off for me.

I figured it out about halfway into my second cookie. OH. I don't like crispy cookies! Doh. I prefer chewy and soft cookies. These are not it. They're not hard so I wouldn't classify them as "crunchy" but they are "crispy" - thin with a bit of hard chew to them.

I did like the flavor combination of salty-sweet, but still found that the cookies themselves lacked something. Spices? Add-ins? Not sure. The coworkers I gave them too enjoyed them and said they were good, but I am not sure whether they were trying to be nice.

Recipe found here.

Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes and Molasses Cookies

2010-12-04T19:36:00.000-08:00

The cool weather has brought me into the spirit of comfort, savoury foods. Not really planning on making a meal with things that start with "M", I ended up with meatloaf and mashed potatoes with molasses cookies for dessert.

Today, I started my holiday baking. I try to bake 1-2 items each weekend, freeze them and then pull them out of the freezer when they're ready to give out. I have 5 items on this year's bake list. Hubby decided he wanted molasses cookies first. (He's my taste tester.) I used this recipe from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen. It makes about 50 soft, chewy, molasses cookies that are both gluten free and vegan. I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out just as she says "soft". Hubby was surprised how well they turned out. He thinks most of the gluten free things I bake taste grainy. And when he finds out I took out or substituted butter or milk, he tells me its dry because there is no fat. This time, he's not happy that I didn't leave enough for him to eat because they're going out to family and select few loved ones. I guess this recipe is a keeper.

Next was dinner... Meatloaf... back to my comfort food... I looked at a few recipes and comments on All Recipes and ended up putting a whole bunch of stuff together to make a simple meatloaf

1.25 lbs of ground turkey
1 egg
1 onion, chopped
1 cup almond milk (there's that milk substitute)
1 cup gluten free bread crumbs (another substitute)
2 tbsp of Italian seasoning
splash of worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all that together in a big bowl. Place in a lightly greased 9x5 pan.

2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
1/3 cup ketchup

Mix well in a small bowl. Spread over meatloaf mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Viola!

Homegrown Heirloom Tomatoes and Basil Makes Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce

2010-11-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

This year my tomatoes have taken over. Maybe it is the mild summer with a few spurts of hot weather. Maybe it's where I planted the tomatoes this season in the garden. Whatever it is, all my tomato plants have become bushes. They are huge and keep giving and giving. This is my third batch of the season. Luscious heirloom tomatoes.

I decided to use some tomatoes to make a different pasta sauce. And since my basil has continued to grow even now, I decided on a tomato basil sauce. Here's what I came up with:

2 italian sausage links

8 small/medium sized tomatoes, diced

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon garlic salt

salt and ground black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon corn starch

1/4 cup water

2 cloves of garlic, diced

1. Cook italian sausages in sauce pan.

2. Toss in the tomatoes and stir until they begin to fall apart, ~5 to 7 minutes.

3. Add the basil, olive oil, garlic salt, salt, and pepper.

4. Slowly stir the corn starch into the mixture and cook until it begins to thicken, 5 to 7 minutes.

5. Add water.
6. Mix garlic into the sauce and simmer another 5 minutes.

And viola! Topped over some quinoa pasta (for the gluten free diet). Hmmm...

Cheeky's Part Deux

2010-11-14T17:51:00.000-08:00

Since we were back in PS, we decided to go back to Cheeky's for Sunday morning brekkie. We found this place last year and remember it mostly for the bacon flight!

We had gotten there slightly before they opened at 8 am. There were already people lined up but they had a sign-in sheet which made things easy. We had a nice outside table again. The weather was warm, the sun wasn't in my face, and it was great for people-watching. :)

We started with coffee and tea ($2.50 each). I love the interesting dishware.

Of course we had the flight of bacon ($4):

From top to bottom, it's Jalapeno, Applewood, smoked, Xtra Thick. The side piece is maple. I had a few bites of each. Maple and jalapeno were my favorites.

R was banned from getting the Eggs Benedict. So he opted for the pecan brioche French toast ($10):

I had a few bites and it was very rich but he enjoyed it.

I love the maple syrup "house":

Even though San Diego does Mexican mighty well, the huevos rancheros ($10) were calling my name.

Those are 2 poached eggs over tortillas and peruano beans. Not a healthy choice, but absolutely a delicious choice.

A very good breakfast before our drive home.

Jake's Ready to Eat

2010-11-14T17:29:00.000-08:00

We were looking for a fun place to have dinner that wouldn't break the bank. We were also dressed in hiking clothes so a $$$ place wasn't going to cut it. There seemed to be no shortage of high-end fancy smanchy restaurants in Palm Springs but we found one listed as $$ instead of $$$ or $$$$! Jake's it is!

The atmosphere is casual but comfortable. There is a larger outside patio which looked romantic and a handful of smaller tables inside. We arrived slightly before 6 pm on a Saturday evening and even though the place looked empty, the host asked whether we had a reservation because he was booked for the entire evening. Luckily he found space, and they were able to seat us inside. The service was awesome... not pretentious, attentive and always friendly. They seemed genuinely concerned with whether we were enjoying our meal.

Shrimp cocktail was offered as an amuse-bouche:.

Tasty! Out came our server to deliver a warm dinner roll shortly after.

I started with the Mixed Organic Greens salad with lemon vinaigrette ($6.50). It had a nice variety of vegetables and everything was fresh, but of course, I could have easily eaten 3 plates of this. :)

R had the filet mignon with blue-cheese (are you surprised?). It came atop roasted garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus ($24). It was so delicious he ate everything cleanly - even the vegetables!

Because they couldn't make the Tower of Eggplant without cheese (apparently it is pre-assembled), I opted for the sea bass. It was crusted with hazelnuts and came with garlic mashed potatoes and not enough broccolini ($21). Although it was rich, it was perfectly cooked and excellent. And even though it may look like a tiny portion in this picture (and I did think so when I first saw the dish), I was surprisingly full after I was done.

After gaping at the display case when we went in, I was determined to have a dessert. I mean, look at them!

This picture doesn't really do them justice (R took the picture - hah!). The cakes are HUGE layer cakes and the brownies and bars (lower shelf on right and left) are as big as my face! Okay, not really... but close!

It was tough choosing, but the peanut butter lover in me had to go with the peanut butter cupcake ($5):

It was a giant-sized, moist chocolate cake filled with a little peanut butter and topped with peanut-butter buttercream and roasted peanuts. Although I LOVE peanut butter, I shortly realized this probably wasn't the wisest choice as I also detest buttercream (too sweet!), and am generally not a cupcake fan. I can't really complain because there was nothing wrong with it (wasn't dry or flavorless), but I should have chosen something else!

R had the "hostess" cupcake ($5):

His response: Mmmmmmmmmm.

To top things off, they gave us a couple of complimentary bites of pecan bars:

I definitely left with a happy, full belly. This place is phenomenal AND good value. A similar dinner would have cost us much, much more. We will be back.

Whisknladle

2010-11-07T19:47:00.000-08:00

For my birthday, we went to Whisknladle in La Jolla. I was interested because I had heard good things about the place and they seemed to have some "different" items on the menu (bone marrow and sweetbreads, anyone?).

I like that their menu changes seasonally, they us local produce, and that most items are in small portions so you can sample quite a few. However, this can add up quickly and a few small plates can make for a hefty price tag.

We started with the chorizo date fritters ($11.50):

These tasty morsels were probably my favorite of the evening. They are dates stuffed with chorizo and served with parsley and a spicy tomato sauce. Very tasty!

For the main entree, I had the conchiglie. It contained shrimp chorizo, sweet potato, rapini and piquillo “sofrito.” At $24, I wouldn't describe it as "good value" but it was tasty, if a little too greasy for me.

R opted for the flat iron steak ($29.50) which came with fries, watercress and a béarnaise sauce (soooo rich).

I noticed there were no salt and pepper shakers on the table to been seen and I wondered what the reaction would be had we asked for ketchup. Heh. The service was very attentive, if slightly pretentious.

For dessert, we tried the pumpkin bread pudding ($10). I had read they made their ice cream on the premises and the butter rum ice cream served with the bread pudding was delicious! The bread pudding itself was a little too "bread-y" for us though.

I think we'd go back and try a few other items but would have to save our pennies for next time.

Gluten Free Chinese Sesame Chicken

2010-09-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

For my last post of the gluten free and dairy free weekend, we have Sesame Chicken and Broccoli over White Rice. Mmmmm....

I followed this recipe at Gluten Free Mommy but would made a few changes to her recipe and would still make a little more. Don't get me wrong, the dish was delicious and it's a recipe keeper. But I'd have less seasame seed and less sugar, even though I already cut her sugar in half. So doing this all over again, here's what I would do.

Gluten Free Chinese Sesame Chicken
4 servings

2 large chicken breasts cut into large chunks
1 tbsp of Gluten Free Tamari Soy Sauce
1 tsp of white rice vinegar
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1/4 cup cornstarch

Mix soy sauce and rice vingear in a bowl and marinate chicken for about 20 minutes. Once marinated, add egg whites and cornstarch. Mix until well-blended. This gives the chicken a crispier coating.

Cook chicken in a wok. When cooked, remove chicken and set aside in a bowl.

Sauce:
1/4 cup Gluten Free Tamari Soy Sauce
2.5 tbsp white rice vinegar
1 cup chicken broth
1/8 - 1/4 cup of sugar
[The original recipe called for 1/2 a cup. I took it down to 1/4 cup and still thought it was a bit sweet. Hubby and I decided to cut the sugar next time but maybe not down to 1/8 cup.]

Sautee 1 diced garlic clove and 1 tsp of hot peppers (optional) in wok. Add the sauce and let ingredients incorporate. Stir in 2 tsp of cornstarch with a little bit of water to thicken the sauce. Keep stiring until the sauce thickens and bubbles. Add the chicken and 1/8 cup of sesame seeds. Stir until chicken is well coated with sauce and seasame seeds. Top with green onions and enjoy!

Yogurt and Honey Quickbread

2010-09-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't had bread or any form of bread for at least 2 weeks. I have been craving bread. So one of my BFFs gave me a recipe for Honey Yogurt Quickbread but her "recipe" was basically only the ingredients and said bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 mins and then cool in pan for 10 mins. That didn't really tell me much. I could make a guess at what to do like put the dry ingredients first. But when it comes to gluten free baking recipes, I'm not quite the "baker" or even close to it yet... considering this is my first weekend of testing the baking waters. I looked up the recipe on the web and I found it on this forum though it's called Yogurt and Honey Quickbread.

I followed the recipe mostly but made a few changes to the ingredients. So here's my version of Yogurt and Honey Quickbread.

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups Four Flour Bean Mix (2/3 cup garfava flour, 1/3 cup sorghum flour, 2 cups cornstarch)
1.5 tsp xantham gum
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.5 tbsp sugar

Wet Ingredients:
3 eggs plus 1 egg white
3 tbsp Earth Balance vegan organic shortening, melted
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp distilled white vinegar
3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
1/3 cup water

1) Mix together dry ingredients in bowl.

2) Combine eggs, shortening, honey and vinegar in a mixer and blend well. Add the yogurt and water and beat until smooth.
[Note: I was concerned about this recipe because I used shortening versus butter. I am allergic to cow's milk so butter is out of the question. While mixing the shortening in Step 2, the shortening started to solidify. I wasn't sure how the recipe would turn out.]

3) Slowly incorporate the dry mixture and mix thoroughly.

4) Pour into a lightly greased and floured bread pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely.
[Note: I baked it for 30 minutes on a convection oven.]

The finished product looked as so. The dough doubled in size from the pan while it was baking. I thought the bread was getting too brown at the top around 20 minutes in. So at 30 minutes, I tested and it was surprisingly done.

The first slice. It looked like any other regular bread.

Inside

The bread was moist and slightly sweet. A great bread for jam and preserves. I am excited to have bread in my tummy again - gluten free and dairy free.

Decadent Dark Chocolate Brownies

2010-09-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

Hurray for gluten free and dairy free dark chocolate chip brownies! A success!! After being a cranky for 2 week because I couldn't bake or eat "real" desserts and breads, I decided this weekend I would venture off into the gluten and dairy free baking world.

Let me start off by saying, it is expensive to bake gluten free. These 4 ingredients alone cost ~$25 and the xanthan gum was $12.50. I only had to use the brown rice flour for the brownie recipe but that's besides the point...

Regardless of price of ingredients, I decided to bake this weekend. It's my stress relief outlet and makes me feel good. And did I mention that I LOVE to eat! I have often been told I should be 200 lbs relative to the amount of food I eat and I should be 300 lbs relative to the amount of times I talk about food. Going gluten free and dairy free is tough but I keep hearing from others that it gets easier. I'm still waiting for the day...

Dark Chocolate Chip Brownies

Ingredients

5 oz of dark chocolate (I used Trader Joe's.)

1/2 cup Smart Balance Organic shortening (I preferred margarine over shortening but they didn't have it at the market. You can substitute the shortening for margarine or butter if you please.)

2 eggs

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup almonds, ground into a fine meal

1/4 cup brown rice flour

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

1) Melt dark chocolate and shortening and set aside.

2) In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs on medium high until frothy. Add the brown sugar and beat until mixture is smooth.

3) Add melted chocolate mixture a little at a time and beat until chocolate looks smooth and glossy.

4) In a separate bowl, combine almond meal, brown rice flour, sea salt and baking soda. Add dry mixture into chocolate mixture. Add vanilla and beat for another minute or so.

5) Stir in nuts. Pour brownie mixture into pan and press chocolate chips into batter. (I do this so the chocolate chips don't all fall to the bottom.)

6) Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes and viola...

Gluten free dark chocolate chip brownies

Gluten Free Quinoa Pilaf

2010-09-11T12:17:00.000-07:00

While the hubby is off in Boise visiting his sister and her family, I am stuck at home... gluten free, wheat free, and practically dairy free. So I decided to try out some new recipes so I have more idea of what to cook during the weekdays. Today's recipe uses quinoa...

Usually when looking up quinoa recipes on the web, I tend to find cold recipes. Mainly a side or a salad type recipe. I wanted something hot, like a rice. So I attempted to make a sort of "quinoa pilaf." It actually turned out really good and was happy that it was a "hot" quinoa dish. I ate it with a tofu and bell pepper stir fry. Yum!

The picture probably looks like mush but make it and I'll prove you wrong.

1) Cook quinoa on stove.

1 cup uncooked quinoa

2 cups chicken broth (you and substitue vegetable or beef broth for a different flavor)

2) Roast 1/4 cup of pine nuts.

3) Stirfry 1/3 cup of diced onions.

4) When quinoa is cooked, mix all together in a bowl.

Curry Pineapple Fried Rice

2010-09-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

We went our monthly family dinner at J&K's this weekend. The theme was Chinese food. I recently found out I am intolerant to gluten, wheat, cow's milk, cheese, and a few other foods. My family was awesome enough to prepare the Chinese dinner in all foods that I am no allergic too. :) My contribution to gluten free Chinese dinner was pineapple fried rice. I know, I know... it isn't really Chinese. It's more of a Thai dish. But when I asked J&K, I was told "never say no to pineapple" and "do it!"

One of the other foods I am allergic to happened to be milk so I was searching for an authentic recipe that didn't include coconut milk. I ended up incorporating 3 different recipes to make the dish... and it turns out I made a curry pineapple fried rice.

I thought it turned out delicious! Not too sweet or spicy, not too rich since it's without coconut milk, and not to bland too.

1) Mix together 1 tbsp curry powder, 2 tbsp gluten free fish sauce, and 2 tbsp pineapple juice in a small bowl.
2) Stir fry 1 sliced onion, 0.5 lb tofu, and 1 cup of diced bell peppers (I used red, orange and yellow peppers).
3) Stir in cooked white rice (1.5 cups uncooked rice), 2 cups of pineapple chunks, 1.5 cups of cashew, a handful of chopped cilantro and the curry mixture.
4) Eat well and enjoy!

Carrot Muffins

2010-08-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

After Shabu Shabu night, I had 4 pounds of carrot left to eat. I was looking up all sorts of recipes to use my carrots. I found this recipe from All Recipes, and I thought it looked fairly easy. It got good reviews, although only 9 of them, and I had all the ingredients in my house.

I followed the recipe but just added a few more carrots (2.5-3 cups or 3 grated carrots), about a tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg. I turned the recipe into muffins so that I could freeze them. It made 6 large muffins. Honestly, the muffins didn't look like much but they were delicious! Cooked perfectly, moist and you could taste the hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. This recipe is definitely a keeper, but of course next time I will use gluten free flour. 5 stars!!

Kale and Banana Smoothie

2010-08-13T20:27:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to look for new recipes to use with kale, so I thought, why not put it in a smoothie? I love green smoothies after all. This smoothie is delicious and nutritious.

1 banana
2 leaves of kale, chopped
1/2 of soy milk
1 tsp of honey or maple syrup
dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or flaxseed

Golden Yam Brownies

2010-08-08T13:51:00.001-07:00

Yams are exceptionally good for the body and I was trying to figure out something new to make with my yams this week. Behold, I found a recipe for Golden Yam Brownies. Who would have thought you could make brownies out of yams? These were delicious!

Based on some of the reviews, I decreased the sugar to 3/4 cups of brown sugar and 3/4 cups of white sugar. I also added in about 1/2 tsp of ground ginger and 3/4 tsp of ground cinnamon.

The brownies came out extremely moist and I am assuming this was due to the butter and/or eggs. Plus, the yams itself carry water. So for my next rendition, I plan on cutting both the eggs and butter in half. I like moist brownies but if it doesn't have to clog the arteries, I rather take it out. I'd also add in a little more ginger and cinnamon... maybe a tsp each, just for some added spice.

Substituting Cherries for Cranberries in White Chocolate Cherry Cake

2010-08-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

I made this awhile back but haven't gotten around to posting the recipe. I got this recipe from a co-worker of mine back in 2005. It's for White Chocolate Cranberry Cake. But when cherries were in season, I ended up substituting the cranberries for cherries to make this delicious cake. Hubby gave it a thumbs up and as usual, we devoured it quicker than expected.

Changes in the recipe:
- Cherries = Cranberries (pitting all the cherries stained my fingers for days)
- Did not make the glaze.

Ingredients
6 oz of white chocolate chips
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
4 eggs
3 tbsp grated orange peel
3 tbsp orange juice
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 cups fresh pitted cherries

Grease and flour bundt pan. Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, orange peel and orange juice. Mix well. Add flour and baking powder. Stir in chocolate and cherries.

Bake 60 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and remove to a wire rack.

Bundt cake on the wire rack

Close up of the cake

Sliced to perfection!

Molten Spiced Chocolate Cabernet Cakes

2010-08-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

I felt like baking something new yesterday and came across a recipe that I tore out of 2008 Martha Stewart Magazine. I have made Molten Chocolate Cakes, also known as Lava Cakes, before but I can't ever seem to get the baking time right. Some cakes are overcooked and don't have chocolate flowing out when you cut into them. Other cakes are undercooked and I can't get them out of the dish without them falling apart. This recipe came out great! The timing was just right and the cakes came out of the ramekins easily. And the cakes weren't overly sweet, which is often the case with the standard Lava Cakes. I'd probably add a dash more ground ginger for more of that spice but other than that, this recipe is a keeper.

Ingredients:

4 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/2 cup butter
2 tbsp Cabernet Sauvignon or other wine
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
6 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger

1) Butter 4 6oz ramekins.
2) Microwave chocolate and butter in a bowl for 1 minute or until butter is melted. Whisk until chocolate is completely melted.
3) Stir in wine, vanilla, and sugar until blended. Whisk in eggs and yolk. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spoon evenly into prepared dishes.
4) Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Let stand for 1 minute. Loosen edges with knife. Invert onto serving plates. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar and enjoy.

After they came out of the oven

Inverted cake

Dusted with powder sugar

Taking the first bite and watching the spiced chocolate flow out

Surfin' California at Lucha Libre

2010-07-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

The hubby and I were watching Man vs. Food one night and they did an episode in San Diego. One of the restaurants they talked about was a Mexican place called Lucha Libre. After watching the show, and salivating, we decided, we must try this place out. While Mr. Smith was out in Singapore for 2 weeks, the Wongs went to review Lucha Libra. We read from Yelp that the line has been long since being aired on Man vs. Food. We thought 4 PM on a Saturday for an early dinner shouldn't be too bad. But we were wrong and still waited about 30 minutes to order our food.

Surf and Turf Taco - Devoured!

Queso Taco - Recommended by the staff but wasn't finished by the foodie

TJ Corn - Tasted like canned corn. Nothing special.

Surfin' California - Grilled Steak, Shrimp, French Fries, Avocado, Pico de Gallo, Cheese, and Special Chipotle Sauce - devoured by 2 Wongs... one of who wasn't even hungry!

TJ Dog - Hot dog wrapped in bacon! For $1.50, it's not bad, but it tastes just like a hot dog.

Pad Prik King

2010-06-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

On our Honeymoon, we ended up eating at Sombat's after visiting the Kilauea volcano. The food was delicious. We had a green chicken curry, a pad prik king, and an order of pad thai. Inspired to cook some Thai food at home since the prices are often ridiculous with skimpy portions, I tried making Pad Prik King and Eggplant Chicken Green curry which were both delicious. I do not have exact measurements for everything since the first time I made it, it was spot on but a little hot. The next time I made it I reduced the curry paste to make it less hot, but it didn't have the curry thickness. This is the Pad Prik King recipe :

1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2-3 Tbsp red curry paste
1/2-1 cup water
1/2-1 chicken breast
3-4 cups green beans
4-5 kaffir leaves
1-2 tsp fish sauce
1-2 Tbsp sugar

Optional:
1/2-1 Carrot
1/2 block tofu

You want enough oil to not let the curry paste burn. 1 Tbsp should be enough. Head the pan to medium heat with the oil coating the pan.
Cook the curry paste for 3-4 minutes until fragrant. Note: The first time I did this I used 3 Tbsp which turned out delicious, but hot. I might need to find another curry paste maker, or do something to cut the hotness because the consistency was great.
I had to add a little bit of water to the curry paste since I did not add to much oil to make it more of a curry consistency (~1/2-1 Cup water).
Cook the chicken until done.
Add green beans and optional ingredients. Cook until done, stirring occasionally.
Add sugar and fish sauce to taste.
Add kaffir lime leaves. I put my leaves in whole, can chop leaves if you like.

Edit 10/3/10:
Just tried making it again and used heavy cream to balance out some of the spiciness, 1 tsp of fish sauce, 4 tsp of sugar, and 1/4 of a lime instead of getting kaffir leaves. Still pretty awesome.

Sombat's Pad Prik King

My Pad Prik King

Curry Paste from 99 Ranch
A little too spicy for me, and too large to use before the rest goes bad. They have smaller canned versions of this curry paste, but were out the day I went.

Kaffir Leaves
You can buy these kaffir lime leaves from 99 ranch. Not too expensive. I froze the leftover leaves and they seem to still do the trick in my cooking.

Scotch Egg

2010-06-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

I tried making these Scotch Eggs and they were not too bad. Definitely not an every day thing, but kind of fun for something different.

Del Mar Fair Eats

2010-06-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

Lesson Learned: The way to do the fair is in a big group. Then you get to try everything!

Chocolate covered bacon:

These were pre-made and served cold in a take out container. 5 pieces for $6 I think. The bacon is covered in dark chocolate and covered with large sea salt crystals. They also give you salt packets in case the salt in the pork fat and sprinkled salt on top isn't enough salt for you. The ratio of chocolate to bacon was off for me and there was too much chocolate. Eh for me.

"Tasty Sweet Potato Fire Dog":

Tiny chunks of sweet potato were thrown into a batter covering a polish dog. Served with a mustard/mayo-like sauce. I would have liked it better if there were more sweet potatoes.

I thought the sweet potato dog would be more like this "Hash Dog":

Described as a "crispy golden hash brown corn dog." I'm not really a hot-dog eater but it seemed like a good concept.

At the Texas Donut booth, we bought a deep-fried Reese's:

But it came out looking like a corn dog covered in powdered sugar! I'm guessing it was a Reese's Whipps?

Tasty, but I am a peanut butter fan. Could have been served hotter too. Didn't seem as fresh?

Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich:

This was smaller than I expected, but then I guess I should have expected it to be the size of a Krispy Kreme donut! I think the chicken was breaded (not a thick breading) and it had a surprising layer of jelly in between.

It wasn't anything special to me and tasted more like a Krispy Kreme donut than anything else.

Alice came back with a huge amount of food... chicken and waffles + a deep fried twinkie.

The verdict? Not as good as Roscoe's?

I admit I did like the twinkie, even though I detest non-fried twinkies.

Deep-fried artichoke hearts served with ranch dressing. They were freshly fried and delicious.

While walking around, we realized there was no shortage of smoked and BBQ-ed food: BBQ chicken, BBQ beef brisket, BBQ pork ribs, BBQ beef ribs, BBQ sundae... wait... what?

BBQ-sundae?!?!

It would be pretty disgusting if it was BBQ beef on actual ice cream (though I can't say it would surprise me since we were at the Fair) but the beef was over mashed potatoes.

I enjoyed the presentation complete with "cherry" tomato on top.

Other Fair favorites: grilled corn on the cob and turkey drumsticks.

There is something primitive about seeing people walk around holding giant drumsticks...

We finally found the booth serving funnel cake on-a-stick (why is everything at the Fair on-a-stick?) but it didn't seem like anything extraordinary so we went for the normal funnel cake. Only we couldn't make up our mind. Raspberry? Apple??? Luckily, the nice woman behind the counter let us do half-and-half:

The raspberry reminded me of a jelly donut. This was delicious but when is funnel cake not delicious?

Nearby, the creme puff booth looked interesting. Of course, they also offered them on-a-stick. We got the sampler ($5).

Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and blue raspberry. Honestly I didn't notice much in the different flavors and these were disappointing. The creme was a basic whip cream and not a pastry cream which normally gives a cream puff its custardy texture. Steph makes them much better.

New to the Fair this year: a deep-fried Klondike bar!

We were told to eat this quickly because it would melt so I have no gooey, melty pictures of the inside. But I guarantee that it was gooey and melty inside. It was good and not as disgusting as I thought it would be. A thick layer of hot breaded batter mixed with melting vanilla ice cream inside is a nice combination.

Having polished off two of those Klondike bars, we decided to go BIG and walk over to the Heart Attack Cafe. I wonder if this has any relation to the scary Heart Attack Grill?

One order of deep fried cinnamon butter coming up!

This was a complete disappointment and grosssssss beyond belief. It seemed like it was a churro that they had injected with melted butter, sprinkled cinnamon on, and placed over some fried tortillas. Oh, and covered with whip cream from a can. There was a pool of oily grossness at the bottom of the tray. After everyone had tried a bit, we threw the rest away. Ewwwww.

Well, we couldn't end on such a bad note, so we went for one more item. Fresh cooked potato chips.

Regular basket ($6) which was served fresh and hot. These were excellent and devoured quickly.

I hope my heart forgives me after today.

Mapo Tofu, the good way

2010-06-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to work on Chinese food cooking and I'd say this dish is bang on. I tried this version http://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-ma-po-tofu/, but found it to be too oily. It was a good start, and I came up with this recipe instead:

1 T Chili oil
1/4 lb ground pork
2 cloves garlic (either pressed or chopped)
3 Tbsp chili bean sauce
1 Tbsp black bean garlic sauce

3 stalks green onion
2 blocks soft tofu

five spice powder to taste

1) Pour in chili oil to coat the bottom of the pan. If this is too oily, can lessen amount.
2) Cook ground pork in oil for a couple minutes, then add garlic cloves, chili bean sauce, and black bean garlic sauce.
3) Cook pork until done.
4) Once meat is done or near done, add green onion.
5) Add soft tofu, chopped in blocks to your liking.
6) Add five spice powder to taste.
7) Cook for a few more minutes, trying not to break the tofu, until tofu and green onions are done.

When life hands you lemons, make lemon cake!

2010-06-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

Or was that lemonade? Lemonade is so boring. After a coworker left behind an abundance of lemons for the taking on the freebie table, I decided to make this lemon cake. I had all of the ingredients (except for 1 egg - thanks j&k!).

Unfortunately, I guess I didn't grease the pan enough because the cake BROKE after trying to remove it!

Bah!!!

I sprayed the pan with Pam but apparently it wasn't enough. I guess I'll have to do more than the 1/10000 of a second serving next time. I loosened the cake with a knife as directed but I couldn't reach the top of the pan and thought it would just come off. Nope. Parts of the cake were still stuck to the pan once I flipped it over. :(

I had planned on bringing in the cake to work, but since it looked... well, un-cake-like, I just distributed it to the family members.

Lemon Bliss Cake (or disaster cake)

The cake isn't as moist as I would have liked despite having still glazed it. I also would have preferred a more intense lemon flavor. I noticed later there wasn't any actual lemon flavoring in the cake itself -- just the glaze. It isn't bad and certainly is acceptable, but I am overall disappointed with this experience.

That's How We Roll

2010-05-31T20:00:00.000-07:00

Sushi Par-tay at j-wong's:

initial spread:

avocado and tapenade finger sushi:

spam musabi (technically Hawaiian, but I'd never had it so I wanted to try it):

carrots and lemon zest inari sushi (brought by j&k):

smoked salmon sushi rice balls:

unagi finger sushi:

Finally, the raw fish! The first of many, MANY, rolls (I stopped photographing at this point):

For dessert, mochi ice cream, Asian cheesecake and butter mochi:

I ate WAY too much this weekend.

Pecan-Raisin Drop Cookies

2010-05-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

While searching for a simple non-chocolate cookie to make, I found these. I never would have put these two together and I honestly wasn't sure how good they would turn out. They have a 100% "would make again" and 4-star rating, but I was still skeptical.

They are great! They are slightly buttery and light with crunchy bits of pecans and plump raisins. The kosher salt doesn't get lost in the cookies either and waves "Hey, taste me!" in certain bites. Some of the reviewers complained that their cookies were flat, but I made the recipe as written and mine looked just like the picture.

I doubled the recipe, because I was going to take 1 batch to work and 1 batch for camping. I thought for sure 100 cookies would be enough. The recipe makes SMALL cookies. I was making mine bite-size and using rounded teaspoons of dough as instructed. The cookies are about 1.5 - 2" in diameter. Despite this, I still only got about 78 cookies out of a double batch. Definitely could have made more!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

2010-05-12T15:35:00.000-07:00

We had a few very ripe and slightly bruised bananas left over from last weekend's camping trip. Neither of us is a fan of eating mushy bananas so I decided to bake with them. I decided to try something different and I don't know how I never thought of this before... Take a couple of my favorite things and bake them all together.

The great thing about this recipe is that neither the chocolate, peanut butter nor bananas have a dominate taste in the bread. There is a good mix of each of them and the bread is moist. It also makes 2 loaves so you can freeze one and eat one.

Makes 2 Loaves

~ 12 slices per loaf

~185 calories per slice

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

3 bananas, mashed

1 cup milk (I used soy milk and you can't taste the difference.)

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I might try dark chocolate next time.)

1) Stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Put aside.

2) Beat together bananas, milk, peanut butter, vanilla and egg. Mix in dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips.

3) Pour batter into 2 greased loaf pans. The batter will be about 1/2 a pan but the bread will almost double in size when baking.

4) Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until done.

Apple Blackberry Cake / Bread

2010-05-12T14:18:00.000-07:00

Last week I was going through some papers and found a recipe I cut out from a Martha Stewart magazine. It was for an Apple Blackberry Cake / Bread. The picture looked delicious! Even though we planned on camping for the weekend, I decided to make the cake/bread... I assumed whatever didn't get eaten during the week, we'd just bring along with us... I assumed wrong... Nothing was left. I made this cake/bread on Tuesday and it was eaten by Friday morning from just the two of us. It was a big hit in the kitchen and something I'd make again. The recipe was sugar quick and easy.

Granulated sugar, for pan
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp butter cut into pieces (for topping)
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp packed light brown sugar (for topping)
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
4 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into wedges (I used granny smith apple because they're my favorite)
1 cup blackberries
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1. Butter a 9" springform pan and dust with granulated sugar.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
3. Whisk together melted butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, milk and eggs in a separate bowl. Whisk flour mixture into wet ingredient bowl.
4. Spread batter evenly into prepared plan. Arrange apple wedges over batter and sprinkle with blackberries. Gently press fruit into batter.
5. Combine remaining 2 tbsp brown sugar, cinnamon and remaining 2 tbsp butter into a bowl. Cut into pieces and sprinkle over fruit.
6. Bake at 375 degrees for about 24-50 min or util cake tester is clean.

Cadbury Creme Eggs Benedict

2010-04-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

I saw this on Serious Eats and had to make it. It is completely gross yet terribly funny. I originally planned on making it for April Fools Day but as you can see, it's April 18th so we'll just say I made it for April Fools Month.

The instructions are detailed on Serious Eats and I made only slight modifications:

I didn't have a pound cake and wasn't going to buy one just for this purpose but I did have very thick slices of a sweet white bread. I fried that in the frying pan and sprinkled a mix of cinnamon and sugar on it.
I used cream cheese frosting instead of buttercream because it's what I had leftover from a recent cake I made. Cream cheese frosting beats buttercream frosting out anytime anyway. I should have warmed the frosting a bit more so the consistency would have looked more like the sauce.

And here are the steps in picture form:

Oh Cadbury eggs do I have a use for you...

The breakfast "potatoes":

The gooey, melty, "eggs" atop the brownie "hams" and "English muffin":

The final plate - it looks so appetizing!

The dissection: the "English muffin" is a cake doughnut, the "ham" is a brownie, the "eggs" are Cadbury Creme Eggs of course, the "Hollandaise sauce" is cream cheese frosting, and the "breakfast potatoes" are pieces of white bread toasted with cinnamon and sugar.

It was a fun project! I was prepared to throw it in the trash but surprise (or maybe not), the BF wanted to eat it. Ew.

Bistro Maxine

2010-04-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

Steph found a crêperie café to try via Yelp in downtown Palo Alto while we were there. We originally wanted to have dim sum but nothing was open earlier than 10 am. Boo.

Enter Bistro Maxine. The place is TINY, as advertised, but at 8:30 am on Saturday morning, the place was empty. The menu features a large selection of both savory and sweet crepes for almost $10/plate. The plates come with a small bowl of fruit.

We ordered:

Complète; egg, ham, Swiss cheese
Forestière; egg, ham, Swiss cheese, mushrooms
Maxine; egg, spinach, mushrooms, Swiss cheese

No pictures of everything because they mostly all looked the same from the outside.

We did also split a sweet crepe for dessert:

Pomme Cannelle; sautéed apples, cinnamon

Is it strange that we're eating dessert at breakfast???

Mmmm... it was kind of heavy for me, but did the trick since I wasn't hungry until well past lunch-time.

King Arthur Flour's Fudge Brownies

2010-04-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

My tried-and-true brownie recipe is usually the one by Ina Garten but I was looking for something with a bit different texture (more "classic brownie") and decided to try a new recipe from KAF. This one is "KAF Guaranteed" and had a lot of good reviews which was a positive sign. The guarantee promises:

These brownies, deep chocolate brown inside with a lighter-colored top crust, will be about 3/4" to 1" tall when cut. They'll be ultra-moist without crossing the line into gooey/underbaked.

I wasn't sure if it would measure up to my usual brownie recipe but it passed all expectations and then some.

It was also easier and faster to make - definite plusses.

My changes were to use normal Dutch process cocoa (not the Double Dutch process cocoa) they recommend, and to leave out the espresso powder. Some people in the group don't care for coffee. It was still excellent. I was hesitant to add chocolate chips into the batter because I don't normally like chunks of hard chocolate in the brownie. KAF says you have the choice of adding the chips right away to the warm batter so the chocolate melts and gets incorporated or waiting 20 minutes and adding the chocolate so that there are firm chunks after the brownie is baked. I opted for somewhere in between and added the chips when the batter was still slightly warm, but not warm enough to completely melt the chips.

My brownies took a bit longer than the recommended time - about 38 minutes. They looked beautiful! The crust was shiny as promised, and when I cut them, the chocolate bits melted, making the brownies just slightly moist. These were fantastic right out of the oven. They have a good chocolate taste, without being overly sweet. The texture is perfect... slightly chewy and fudge-y but not too dense. I did not find them cakey.

I saved a few for a special "project" I want to make in the next week or two... stay tuned!

Orange Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake

2010-04-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

It's Easter and we were celebrating at my brother's palace today. My contribution was dessert. I decided I was in the mood for chocolate. I have been making a variety of healthier options -- cookies with dried fruit, breads with vegetables, and muffins with fresh fruit -- and needed to go back to my "core" chocolate. For whatever reason, the combination of orange chocolate came to my taste buds. I was in search for some orange chocolate cake. But I didn't want to bake a chocolate-based cake with a flavoring of orange. I wanted an orange cake with chocolate flavoring. And what do you know, Ina Garten makes a Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake.

The recipe takes a little bit of time due to the zesting of oranges and making the syrup and ganache. However, this is a recipe to keep. It was moist and delicious. It got 5 stars from 93 reviewers and it difficulty level was moderate. For those who bake regularly, it's fairly easy. It just takes a little more time.

The only change I made was using 1/4 cup of grated orange zest versus the 1/8 cup. I wanted a more orange flavor. And if I made this again, I would double the recipe for the cake and syrup. The cake turned out dense so doubling the recipe would lead to much happier bellies. The ganache amount can be left as-is. It is enough for us Wong's who aren't that into the "frosting".

In the bundt pan

Out of the bundt pan

Making the ganache

Ganache is finished

The final product!

My brother got a picture of the cake after it was cut! It shows much better than this picture above because you can see the chocolate chips amongst the orange cake.

Blackberry Oat Muffins

2010-04-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

When the Smith's and Bortz's were in town for breakfast this week, I decided to make a healthy batch of muffins. Mrs. Smith always seems to be talking about her new weight loss and I wanted to make sure she had something decent to eat in the morning. I settled on Blackberry Oat Muffins, a recipe from Quaker Oats, that were only 110 calories each.

I thought there were a tad bit on the dry size but overall, pretty good.

Blackberry Oat Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
110 calories each

1 cups oats
1 cup buttermilk
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 cup flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries (raspberries or blueberries will work too)

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray 12 muffin cups with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine oats and buttermilk; let stand 10 minutes. Add egg whites, butter and lemon peel. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients except berries. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Gently stir in blueberries. Fill muffin cups almost full. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Rocky Road Crunch Bars

2010-03-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Rocky Road is more than just an ice cream flavor? I didn't. Somehow I got it into my head that I wanted to make something with marshmallows (don't ask me how anything gets into my head). I don't even know why since I don't particularly care for marshmallows. But when the email came announcing a work potluck, the mission was clear:

What dessert can I make with marshmallows?

I did my usual searching online and found out that not only is rocky road more than just an ice cream flavor, but it is also a candy bar. Who knew?! You learn something new everyday! And totally not useless knowledge. Heh.

Rocky Road Crunch Bars

I mostly followed the recipe, except I doubled it and made it in a 9x13" pan. I lined the pan with wax paper to make them easier to cut. That didn't work so well. They were stuck in there, so it did take some knife squeezing to pry them out.

You could probably use any kind of crunchy cookie, but I used Nilla Wafers. I didn't dust them with powdered sugar at the end, though that would have been pretty.

They stayed crunchy for the first few days (about how long they lasted). They taste very rich and sweet and the crunch of the cookies is a nice contrast. Well-received by all!

Best Ever Zucchini Bread

2010-03-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I made chocolate chip cookies, or what we call in our household "Perfect Cookies". It's just a basic chocolate chip recipe but I added in walnuts, dark chocolate, and caramel.

Yesterday, I didn't have time to do any baking... Kameran's bachelorette party.

But today, it was back to baking. Today's bake of the day was Zucchini Bread. It is delicious! I highly recommend this recipe. It's too bad I only made 2 loaves because I might eat them both by the end of the week.

Makes 2 loaves

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable / canola oil
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

1) Grease and flour 2 bread pans.
2) Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3) Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together. Add sifted ingredients. Stir in zucchini and nuts.
4) Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 50 minutes.
5) Enjoy and eat well!

Almond Butter and Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2010-03-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

I used the classic peanut butter cookie recipe and mixed it up a wee bit using almond butter, oat flour (rolled oats in a food processor), and chocolate chunks from some almond Ghirardelli squares I had lying around the house. (I think that's a run-on sentence.)

Makes 64 cookies

Approximately 83 calories each

1 cup butter

1 cup almond butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cups oat flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

10 Ghirardelli squares, chunked into pieces

1) Beat together butter, almond butter, and sugars. Mix in eggs and vanilla.

2) Combine oat flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix into almond butter mixture.

3) Stir in chocolate chunks.

4) Bake 9 minutes at 350 degrees.

I chilled the dough for a few hours before working with it because it was very creamy. These cookies spread out quite a bit as well so make them small.

Roasted Garlic Butter Bread

2010-03-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

It got to late for me to blog about yesterday's baking encounters...

Last month, I made Roasted Garlic Butter with my Gilroy garlic.

Picture is not that appetizing, I know... but that's the butter rolled in wax paper.

I was going to a Cookies meeting last night and volunteered to bring rolls with the corned beef and cabbage main dish. I decided I would use my Roasted Garlic Butter for the dinner "rolls." I didn't have time to make dough from scratch so I bought some pre-made french bread dough from the store. Rolled out the dough on a mat, spread heapings of roasted garlic butter on the dough and rolled the dough back up. Viola! It was delicious and I got quite a few compliments last night.

You can do this with many different spreads like pesto or sundried tomatoes. I have also do this as a "pizza" by spreading a light tomato sauce and added in pepperoni, pancetti, and mushrooms. Yummy yummy yummy!

Caramel Apple Cookie Challenge

2010-03-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

Today begins the baking week. Well, it's always baking week but since the hubby is out for 2 weeks, it's really baking week. I thought about doing some sort of silly challenge like in Julie and Julia. Then I thought about Maddie, and I didn't think it was feasible to bake one new thing every day. I have a list of things that I want to bake while hubby is out, so let's just see how far I get.

Day 1 started out with a Caramel Apple Cookie Challenge. I saw cookies in the store a few weeks ago for Caramel Apple Cookie. They sounded and looked delicious. After researching multiple recipes, I ended up with 2 that I liked. So I tried both Contender #1 and Contender #2 from 2 different food blogs.

Contender #1

For Contender #1, I used butter instead of shortening and added in a caramel syrup. It did not end up looking like the picture shown, as you can tell. My cookies ended up being much flatter. And I wouldn't really say these ended up being cookies. They taste more like a cake than a cookie. On top of that, I would call these cookies Cinnamon Apple "Cookies".

Contender #2

I followed this recipe exactly with the exception of the caramel baking bites (because I couldn't find them). I used regular chewy caramel that I cut into small squares. If I make this recipe again, I might use hard caramel. The chewy caramel got so softed while baking and made the cookies sticky. I could barely get the cookies off the silpat. The cookies were really chewy and soft. I think this recipe might be better as a bar.

Neither contender 1 or 2 photographed well. I think they both taste better than they look. But hands down, for taste, go with contender 2.

Monster Bars

2010-03-10T07:23:00.000-08:00

I was in the mood for some baking and I was trying to decide amongst zucchini bread, blackberry oat muffins, caramel apple cookies, and magic bars. When I looked in my refrigerator, the choice was easy... I had no zucchini, no milk, and no apples - ingredients that the other three recipes called for. So magic bars it was. I changed the recipe for fun and tried to save a few calories but these definitely aren't good for the diet. Oh, and I renamed the bars to "Monster Bars" for Miss Monster Maddie.

Monster Bars
Makes 36 servings
120 calories per bar

1/2 cup of butter
1.5 cups of crushed graham cracker
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup of unsweetened chocolate chunks
(This is a substitute. Feel free to change the 2 cups of chocolate chips to white, dark, or bittersweet chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, M&Ms, etc. Anything will work.)
1 1/3 cup of coconut flakes
1 cup chopped nuts (original recipe calls for walnuts but I used roasted puts)

1) Melt butter in 9x13 inch glass pan over 350 degrees in the oven. (Or melt the butter in the microwave and poor it into the pan.)
2) Sprinkle graham crackers into pan. Poor condensed milk evenly onto crackers. Layer the ingredients evenly in the order listed above. Press down firmly so the ingredients stay together when baking.
3) Bake for 25 minutes over 350 degrees. Completely cool bars and cut into pieces.
4) EAT WELL and Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

2010-02-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

It's only been a week since I baked something and already I wanted to bake again... despite the "but you're making me faaaaaat!" laments.

I wanted to bake something as a thank-you to a friend who did something SUPER nice for me recently and since these would be put through the mail, I figured what travels better than bar cookies?

And what's better than classic chocolate chip cookies? But... in BAR FORM!

With nuts!

BTW, all you plain chocolate chip cookie lovers are crazy. Chocolate chip cookies WITH NUTS is where it's at.

And if it couldn't get better...

With m&ms!!!

What can I say - I get excited about baking...

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

from King Arthur Flour

My only change was to use less chocolate chips (probably about 5 oz and handfuls of m&ms mixed in). I also used toasted pecans for the nuts.

I baked for exactly 30 minutes and they are right, the cake tester isn't clean. They are DELICIOUS. Gooey, chocolate-y, and perfect. They are reminiscent of a chewy brownie in texture.

They are safely packed away for travel tomorrow morning and thankfully, I only saved some of the ugly edges for myself ... because they will be gone by tonight!

I hope she likes them!

Sweet and Chunky Plum Jam

2010-02-27T20:25:00.000-08:00

My first time ever making homemade jam... I tried the easier, 30 minute, no boil, freezer jam.

1) Wash and rinse nine 1 cup jars and lids

2) Wash 3 lbs of sweet plums. Discard pits (do not peel) and chop plums with food processor. If you like chunky jam like me, pulse with the food processor not puree.

3) Mix in the juice of 4 lemons. I used 1/2 cup lemon juice instead of fresh lemons.

4) Gradually stir in 1 packet of pectin, mixing thoroughly. Set aside for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to dissolve pectin thoroughly.

5) Pour 1 cup of light corn syrup into fruit mixture. I only had 1/2 cup of corn syrup left so hopefully it still comes out okay.

6) Stir in 4.5 cups of sugar until all the sugar is dissolved. I wanted to lessen the sugar because I always find homemade jam too sweet. But the directions specifically said not to reduce sugar or substitute it.

7) Pour mixture into containers, leaving 1/2 inch space at the top for expansion in the freezer.

8) Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours until set. The jam can keep for 3 weeks in the refrigerator or 1 year in the freezer.

Can't wait to taste tomorrow... I'll share my finished product with you...

Gilroy Garlic Makes Roasted Garlic Compound Butter with Rosemary

2010-02-27T19:29:00.000-08:00

With 8 cloves of Gilroy garlic, I was searching for any kind of delicious garlic recipe. I got suggestions for roasted garlic, pickled garlic and garlic ice cream.

Garlic #1 and #2: I started my venture off with a basic Garlic and Herb Cheese Bread with my trusty bread maker. No recipe, just winging it... a packet of yeast, ~2 cups of flour, ~1 cup of warm water, ~1-2 cups of mixed shredded cheese, salt to taste, dried oregano from the garden, and 2 garlic bulbs sliced, diced, and cloved. Put it in the bread maker to mix, knead and rise. Then transferred it to a bread pan and baked at 350 until done. It smelled like a ton of garlic and I was worried it would be too much garlic. But it tasted good. It could have used a little more cheese but I didn't have any more.

Garlic #3 - #7: In my search for garlic recipes, I came across this website. It had 3 different types of garlic recipes with roasted garlic. So I roasted 5 whole garlics in my toaster oven and used the butter compound recipe with my newly roasted Gilroy garlic. I'm not a fan of butter unless it's baked into cookies or a dessert. But the hubby likes butter and if this turned out well, I might spread it on a french bread for a snack. I used maybe 6 tbsp of butter instead of 8. And smashed all 5 roasted garlic into the butter. To add a little more flavor, I added a small handful of rosemary from Jen's garden. We'll see how it turns out... (pictures to come)

Grand Prize Coconut-Caramel Bars

2010-02-22T19:22:00.000-08:00

I missed the Girl Scout cookie sales window and was craving my favorite cookie, the mighty Samoa. Chocolate, caramel, coconut -- the entire tiny box is typically devoured in very little time. I have tried a couple of Samoa-type of cookies in the past: Baking Bite's Homemade Samoas and King Arthur Flour's Ginger's Coconut Caramel Candy Bars. Both were okay, with the Baking Bites recipe being closer to the real thing, but also too time-consuming for me.

While looking through recipes, I had noticed another one on the King Arthur Flour's website advertising Samoa-like flavors. The reviews were stellar, with one "gourmet" cook saying it would be too dangerous for her to make them again. With a review like that, I had to give this one a try.

Grand Prize Coconut-Caramel Bars

The verdict? Definite Samoa-like flavors, but I wouldn't ever confuse this with an actual Samoa cookie. It doesn't have the shortbread cookie bottom. The cookie itself is caramel-like and chewy. Though the recipe says not to line the pan and that it shouldn't stick, it did stick quite a bit to my pan! I used a glass Pyrex 9x13" pan. Maybe a metal pan would have been better?

Because of the problems I had removing the bars, the resulting cookies weren't quite pretty either. We ended up consuming quite a few "uglies." :)

I like this one the best of the 3 Samoa recipes I've tried so far because it's easy enough and the flavors are there. I'd still be willing to test a few more though...

Red Velvet Cake and Purple Velvet Cupcakes

2010-02-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

Around Valentine's Day it seems that every place offers Red Velvet Cake. Its rich and creamy flavor and red coloring make it perfect for the romantic occasion...

So when Kameran's Bridal Shower was planned to be on Valentine's Day, I thought, "I had to buy her a red velvet cake." It turns out that Nothing Bundt Cake (where Jon and Kameran plan to purchase their wedding cake) have a store in Poway and offer a red velvet bundt cake. Perfect! It's not one of their wedding cake flavors but it would be a nice touch to have a Nothing Bundt Cake for her Valentine's Day Bridal shower. So welcome to the family, Kameran!

I'd have to say that Nothing Bundt Cake's red velvet cake with chocolate chips was delicious. It was very dense and moist, which of course means lots of butter and buttermilk. It was a gorgeous bright red meaning they must have used a ton of food coloring to get such a vibrant color. I loved it! For me, it is right up at the top next to Costco's red velvet cake. Here's a look on the inside:

In the spirit of red velvet cakes, my mother-in-law's birthday was celebrated yesterday. I thought it would be a great chance to make a red velvet cake from scratch. But since my mother in law's favorite color is purple, I would take my chances and try to die the cake purple.

My sister-in-law gave me a cupcake cookbook for Christmas. My first attempt at making cupcakes from the cookbook was for Ryan's birthday. I attempted to make Rocky Road cupcakes. And although they looked great, they were quite dry and mostly ended up in the garbage (hence the reason I didn't share the recipe). The red velvet cupcakes where better but not quite as good as Nothing Bundt Cake or Costco. They weren't as dense or moist, but they weren't dry either. They just didn't taste "velvety". And the "purple" velvet cupcakes didn't turn out so purple. They looked purple before baking and turned brown from the cocoa powder after baking. So if you have any suggestions on making this recipe better, send them my way.

Red / Purple Velvet Cupcakes

Makes about 18 regular cupcakes or 9 jumbo cupcakes.
(I made half the recipe and baked them into 4 large cupcakes.)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
1 tbsp red food coloring
1 cup buttermilk

1) Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in bowl and set aside.
2) Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in vanilla, vinegar, and food coloring. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk and beat until batter is smooth. (Next time, I would add some chocolate chips.)
3) Spoon into cupcake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until done. Remove from oven and cool.

Icing
4 oz shortening (I always use butter instead.)
1 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups powdered sugar

1) Cream shortening with milk until creamy. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar to shortening. Beat until icing is pale, light and fluffy.
2) Ice cooled cupcakes and decorate as desired.

So for my final product, I attempted to make some cute designs with purple sugar sprinkles. But that didn't turn out so well... (I really need to take a cake decorating class so I have better presentation skills.) I ended up sprinkling on the purple sugar and topped each cupcake with a chocolate covered oreo cookie. Viola!

Big Pleaser Lasagna

2010-02-19T13:43:00.000-08:00

I love lasagna but never seem to be able to make it because it's meant for larger groups of people. So when my Darlinanna and her boyfriend were coming to visit, I decided it was time to make lasagna. One of my girlfriends once told me she makes an awesome lasagna. Her recipe came from All Recipes. From the 4.5 stars out of 1435 reviews, I knew it would be good. But of course, I still made some adjustments based on my own tastes. The instructions are the same, but the ingredients differ so here's my slightly different version.

1/2 pound of ground turkey

3/4 pound of mild italian sausage (about 4 links)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp fresh basil (from my garden)

1 tsp dried oregano (from my garden)

2 tbsp of brown sugar (this cuts the acidity in the tomatoes if you ever wanted to know)

1 (28 oz) can of diced tomatoes

1 (6 oz) can of tomato paste

1 (16 oz) jar of any tomato sauce or pasta sauce

12 dry lasagna noodles

2 eggs, beaten

1 pint part-skim ricotta cheese

4-6 cups of spinach

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 pound of mozzarella cheese, shredded

Follow the recipe from the link. The extra tomato sauce goes into Step 1. The spinach is mixed in with the ricotta in Step 3.

The lasagna was a hit! Former cook of 10 years finished his huge serving with a smile on his face. My BFF and 95 lb girlfriend both finished their plate. Hubby devoured the lasagna without a crumb to spare. And my plate looked like there was nothing at on it after I was through.

Chocolate Caramel Paisley Blondies

2010-02-07T12:54:00.000-08:00

On a rainy day, sometimes all I want to do is bake some goodies and warm food and watch a movie by the fireplace. Well, we had some friends come over last night so nix on the movie and fire. But I did happen to get a little adventurous and make some Chocolate Caramel Paisley Blondies. Considering all the butter in them, I was surprised that they were a little drier and cakier than I expected. Although, I'd have to admit, they are pretty darn good and great for sharing with friends.

Chocolate Chip Paisley Blondies

Makes 32 bars, 142 Calories each

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1/2 cup caramel syrup

1) Beat butter, sugar and brown sugar until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

2) Mix flour, baking powder and salt in separate bowl. Beat into the butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

3) Spread half the batter in a greased 13x9" baking pan. Drizzle caramel over the top. (I don't really know how much I used but it was maybe 1/3-1/2 cup of caramel.) Spoon over the remaining batter. It's important to use a spoon because you want the caramel to stay in the middle so that the syrup showing in the spaces between the batter will form a paisley effect.

4) Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely in pan and cut into bars.

Ciera

2010-02-06T22:07:00.000-08:00

On the last night of our Tahoe stay, we decided to treat Daddy Wong to a nice dinner. We didn't want to drive the scary rental in the snow too far, so we braved an entire two miles away from the hotel and ended up at Ciera, a steakhouse. Ciera resides within the Montebleu casino, just over the Nevada stateline in South Lake Tahoe. The atmosphere is elegant and classy: white tablecloths, dim lighting, dressed-up waiters, a hostess in a red cocktail dress... However, I noticed almost everyone who walked in was wearing ski jackets and jeans.

We were seated in a pillow-lined booth along the side of the wall. There are several booths against the wall and although quite big, they are cozy and intimate. The intimate feeling might have had something to do with the red velvet curtains that framed the booth. I imagine we could have closed them for complete privacy.

Fresh bread came out first. The waiter offered three kinds: cheese, cranberry, and wheat. Of course, I tried them all. :) All had soft insides contained by a hearty crust that was perfect. My favorite was the cranberry, which was sweet and had some kind of seed/oat mixture on the crust that complimented the chewy softness. The bread was accompanied by a trio of three flavored butters: sweet cream, cranberry, and pesto.

We ordered:

the ahi tuna appetizer

The appetizer was brought out and placed in front of us. Each of us received Asian-like square serving plates, a set of chopsticks, and a unique angled dish specific to mix wasabi and soy sauce with.

The tuna was crusted with some kind of pepper spice mix which I didn't care for but my dining companions enjoyed. There was also a small mound of seasame-flavored seaweed salad on the plate.

The boys ordered the 10 oz filet mignon ($38). Ciera is not cheap. This is the price for the filet and it comes with nothing else.

Oh sorry, it comes with small garnishes of a quarter of an onion, a sprig of rocket, and a baby carrot. They both ordered it medium rare and said it was good, but I get the impression at least one of them thought he had tasted better.

the hazelnut-crusted sea bass ($28)

I ordered the sea bass. It wasn't under or overcooked, and had a nice buttery flavor/texture, but seemed just the slightest bit bland. It came perched over a creamy sauce that did make up for the blandness however.

We also ordered two sides to share (they are "family style"):

asparagus ($6)

Sprinkled with parmesan and accompanied by hollandaise (I requested it on the side).

mushrooms ($6)

I loved this... a delicious mix of brown and shiitake mushrooms with garlic drenched in a wine sauce.

We were too full by the time dessert was mentioned, but surprise! The waiter brought by complimentary chocolate-covered strawberries over dry ice. The display was quite impressive and it was a nice touch.

Pricey? Yes. Good? Yes. Great? No. A nice ending to a week-long snow week? Definitely.

Chocolate Chunk and Walnut Oatmeal Cookies

2010-02-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

I was a little frustrated yesterday after the second week in a row I wasn't able to dance. Last week, the door was locked and I couldn't get into the classroom. No one cared that I knocked for 10 minutes... And then yesterday, the class was canceled or moved to a different classroom. I still don't know and there was no note on the door. I even went with another student to check out the other dance studios on campus and the class was no where to be found. Needless to say, I was a little irked. So what better than to come home and bake cookies...

I was looking for a healthier cookie since I didn't exactly workout and burn the 500 or so calories I expected to in the 90 minute dance class. This recipe came from my health magazine and is supposedly good for women. It has dark chocolate, walnuts and oats... yum, yum, and yum... But after calculating the calories on my trusty iPhone, it turns out that each cookie is 120 calories each. Wow! They taste good so here's the recipe...

1) Melt 6 tbsp unsalted butter. Remove from heat and add 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar; stirring until smooth.

2) Combine 1/3 cup all purpose flour, 1/3 cup whole-wheat flour (I just doubled the all purpose flour since I don't keep whole wheat flour on hand.), 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats, and 1/2 tsp salt in a medium bowl.

3) Combine butter misture with the dry ingredients. Add 1 egg, lightly beaten, and 1 tsp vanilla.

4) Fold in 1/2 cup walnuts and 3 oz of bittersweet, dark, or unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped.

5) Bake for 11 min at 350 degrees. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

Graham I am

2010-01-30T21:43:00.000-08:00

From wong food!

I feel it is only natural that when there are tons of very urgent and important things to take care of, the best way to establish order amongst chaos should be to bake.

However, when that baking is your very favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe at 10pm at night, when you're stressed and thinking that you *deserve* to eat a quarter of the cookie dough, then this may be an exception. No matter how delicious the recipe may be. That's for another post.

Of course today I had yet more important things to take care of, so to make myself feel better I looked at food blogs. One of my favorites is called "food loves writing", and one of her recent posts was on Graham Crackers.

"graham crackers? what an interesting idea. hmm what am I going to make for dinner tonight, did I get the mail already...?"

Obviously I'm focused. I looked at two more blogs and strangely enough they, too, had Graham Crackers.
Well surely this is a sign. And so I made delicious Graham Crackers.

Graham Crackers, from food loves writing

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup chilled unsalted butter cut into cubes
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all dry ingredients in food processor. Add butter and mix until crumbs form. Then add honey and molasses and mix thoroughly. Lastly, add milk and vanilla.
Roll out dough onto floured silpat. The thinner, the crispier, though as Shannalee notes, much less than 1/4" will make them *very* crispy.
Chill for 15 minutes, cut into shapes and pierce with a fork. Bake 350 for 20 minutes.

Pretzel time is always a good time

2010-01-30T21:20:00.000-08:00

From wong food!

The previous week I had a failed attempt at English Muffins.

I haven't quite mastered bread baking. I'm in love with the way bread baking should look in my head, like Helen from the All Things Bright and Beautiful series. I should be up to my arms in flour, making bread for my family as my future husband walks in the door of my quaint country home.

Well, I'm certainly getting flour everywhere, and my future husband does walk in the door, but my stand mixer does most of the kneading these days and our quaint country home is a small apartment in San Diego. Almost quaint, right? Almost country, right?

Anyway, the week before I had tried and failed to make english muffins, and I got slightly discouraged. AND I used the very last of the yeast we had. Well, I'm not going to let some little microorganisms get the best of ME at baking! So off to Costco to buy an extraordinarily large and cheap bag of Red Star Active Dry yeast. Naturally, I had to test it out, and boost my confidence again.

It was pretzel time.

I used the "Buttery soft pretzels" recipe in the above link. Here are my personal notes:

I actually used 3.5 cups of white flour and 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour.
You can let the dough proof for a looooong time in it's first rise. I accidentally did 3 hours.
Roll the pretzel rope out THIN. I mean, pencil thin. seriously. You think it looks okay? No, go roll it thinner.
After you make the pretzel shape, lay the dough on the baking sheet with the tails of the pretzel underneath the dough. It keeps them from rising up and off of the rest of the dough.
I would let them bench proof an additional 10-15 minutes on the baking sheet, after you've formed the shape.
Brush them with butter after they've come out of the oven.

My confidence definitely came back when my pre-husband exclaimed that these were my best batch yet.

A Belated Christmas Party

2010-01-30T20:53:00.000-08:00

From wong food!

So it's mid-January, I'm settling back into San Diego after a stint in the Bay Area. The Christmas spirit is waning as I throw away the boxes from my last few presents when I get a phone call from my friend K.

"...sooooo I really wanted to have a christmas party this year but wasn't able to get it together BEFORE christmas, so I'm having it this weekend. Can you come?"

pshh, like I would pass an opportunity to see my best friend, much less attend an event that extends all things wonderful: fuzzy sweaters, presents, and baking.

I had just finished reading my Real Simple christmas magazine and came across this recipe. What timing! And I hadn't found a sugar cookie I liked much until this one.

Basic Sugar Cookie Dough- adapted from Real Simple
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for the work surface
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In your stand mixer, mix all the wet ingredients, then gradually add all the dry ingredients until a stiff dough has formed.
Lay down a sheet of parchment paper, put half the dough dough and lay another sheet of parchment on top. Roll it out to about 1/4" thick. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Cut each slab of dough into a square shape. Eat the scraps :)
Freeze for about an hour.
Take out slabs and cut into 2" squares. Work quickly, as the dough will soften up reallllll fast and it gets gooey. Move the baby squares to a baking pan and bake for 12-15 minutes, until just browned on the edges.
While the cookies cool, start up a double boiler and melt some dark chocolate until smooth. Throw a small pat of butter in there, maybe a tablespoon. (Just a warning here: DO NOT let any water get into your chocolate or it will seize. Do not try to make it milk chocolate by adding half and half, it doesn't have enough fat. I *may* have done this and it didn't work well...)
Dip your cookies in the melted chocolate and lay down on a silpat or parchment paper. I actually just grazed the top of the cookie over the chocolate.
Crush up some candy canes and sprinkle on top.
Let cool thoroughly and eat until sick.

Caramel Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding

2010-01-30T20:23:00.000-08:00

I am a big fan of Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding but it turns out that Ryan likes this recipe for Caramel Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding better. It is a little less sweet. I can't decide. I love the croissant taste but I agree that this recipe with caramel is a little less sweet which is more to my taste buds... perhaps a mixture of both recipes.

Caramel Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding

1 pound french or broiche bread cut into 1" cubes

2 oz melted butter

1 1/3 cups heavy whipping cream

4 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp dark rum

1 tsp vanilla extract

3.5 oz dark chocolate

3.5 oz caramel sauce

1) Combine bread and melted butter. Spread cubes in a 9x13 baking pan and place in oven (350 degrees) until toasted (4-5 min). Remove from oven and let cool.

2) Mix cream, eggs, egg yolks, sugar, rum and vanilla. Pour over bread cubes and coat bread until completely soaked.

3) Layer bread in 9x5 loaf pan. Sprinkle chocolate chunks and drizzle caramel. Repeat layers with the remaining bread, chocolate and caramel.

4) Bake at 350 degrees until custard is set. About 20 min.

Christmas Treats, Part 2

2010-01-28T20:18:00.000-08:00

In part 2 of the Jen Wong Christmas Treats story, I bring you the second candy-like item I made for the holiday ...

Oreo Truffles!!

Sooooo easy! I had seen the recipe floating around the internet for a couple of years now but never had an opportunity to make them. I seem to be a last-minute baker who is making something the night before an event and since these required refrigeration, they usually got pushed off for another occasion.

Like the peanut butter cups, there is no baking required and they are super easy. THREE INGREDIENTS! Just Oreos, cream cheese, and chocolate.

Since I'm a Trader Joe's fan, I bought Jo-Jo's, the chocolate-sandwich cookies that strangely resemble Oreos... This time of year they also have a mint version so I decided to make mint oreo truffles as well.

Oreo Truffles (from Kraft)

1 package (1 lb. 2 oz.) Oreo Cookies, finely crushed, divided
1 8 oz package cream Cheese, softened [I used light]
1 lb dark chocolate

Remove 6 Oreos. Grind in a food processor into crumbs. Set aside.

Grind the remaining Oreos and cream cheese in a food processor. Refrigerate at least one hour.

Roll into 1" balls.

Dip balls into melted chocolate. Coat until covered, then remove and let dry on waxed paper. Sprinkle reserved cookie crumbs on top of truffle. Refrigerate until set.

Store leftover truffles in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator.

Peppermint variation!

For the mint version, I used mint Jo-Jos, and added about a teaspoon of peppermint extract to the chocolate coating. I sprinkled crushed peppermint candies on top for decoration.

I used forks to roll the balls around in chocolate, which worked well, but I had some trouble with fork tine-marks along the sides of some of them. Just noting in case beauty is an issue...

They were so well-received, I had to make more the following weekend!

Fattening the Belly with Cinnamon Rolls

2010-01-23T16:09:00.000-08:00

I am a little down today so I feel like fattening up the belly with some homemade cinnamon rolls. I can't really take credit for the recipe since we got it from Ryan's mom. I changed around the recipe a bit to fit my style...

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1 pkg rapid rise yeast
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
3 cups flour

1. Warm milk in small saucepan until it bubbles. Remove from heat and mix in butter until melted.
2. Add water and let cool until lukewarm.
3. Add flour, sugar, salt, egg, and yeast into bread machine. Pour milk/butter/water mixture into bread machine.
4. Set bread machine to dough setting. (Add flour if needed.)

1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup softened butter (I'd use less... maybe 2-3 tbsp)
Optional Nuts (I am a big fan of nuts and used pecans but I'm sure walnuts would taste great too.)

1. Turn dough out onto floured cutting board. Roll into 12x9 inch rectangle.
2. Mix cinnamon and brown sugar in bowl
3. Spread dough with softened butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture.
4. Roll up dough and slice into 12 1" slices.
5. Place rolls into 9x13" greased baking dish.
6. Cover and let rise until almost doubled. (About 1-1.5 hrs)
7. Bake for 20-25 min at 375 degrees.

Frosting
1 cup confectioners sugar
1.5 oz cream cheese softened
1/2 tbsp butter softened
1/4 tsp vanilla extra (I like to use almond extract instead.)
1.5 tbsp milk

1. Combine confectioner's sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla.
2. Add milk gradually until frosting reaches a spreading consistency.
3. Spread over warm (but not hot) cinnamon rolls.

Christmas Treats, Part 1

2010-01-22T19:30:00.000-08:00

Yes I realize it is JANUARY but obviously I am behind in posting. Anyway, if I posted ahead of time, then the surprise would be ruined! Um yeeeeah, that's the story I'm sticking to.

Every year around October or November, I embark the yearly tradition of making treat items for close family and friends. Sometimes they are old recipes that I love, and other times they are brand-new and I'm hoping they are a hit! It's a lot of work and even though every freaking year I swear I will NEVER do it again, somehow I end up in the kitchen burning the midnight oil.

This year I made some old favorites: Cook's Illustrated gingerbread cookies, almond toffee (dark chocolate, thank you), and chocolate-orange cookies. But this year I made a couple of new ones as well. The first...

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups!

(I just realized I have pictures of the steps but no pictures of the resulting product! Boo)

Now, you may be asking yourself, why the heck would you want to make your own peanut butter cups when Reese's peanut butter cups are so easily available (and undoubtedly cheaper)? Well, I'll tell you... (1) the novelty (I like to bake for fun okay?) and (2) because there aren't as many ingredients I don't recognize. TBHQ anyone?

I followed this recipe from Baking Bites because it seemed simple enough. The only change I made was to use all crunchy peanut butter because honestly, who keeps two types of peanut butter in their pantry? It was a relatively easy process, except somewhat time-consuming because each stage involved refrigerating the cups to get the chocolate to harden. You want to make these on a nice, lazy afternoon. Not at uh, 10 pm. Not that I know what that is like.

I also found that I ended up using A LOT of chocolate overall. Definitely not cheaper than the Hershey product since I was using higher quality chocolate.

The resulting product didn't taste like a Reese's Peanut Butter cup. It didn't quite have that sickly sweet junk food taste. It tasted more like something from a gourmet chocolate shop, with a crunchy bite to the chocolate and chunks of gooey peanut butter inside. Delicious!

I want to try them with almond butter next time...

Torch me!

2010-01-21T19:20:00.001-08:00

R got a creme brulee set for Christmas. While I'm generally not a fan of creme brulee (yes, even at Donovan's), I told him I'd make the custards and we'd torch them together.

I wasn't quite sure what was in creme brulee but when I started looking for recipes, I became even less of a fan. The basic mixture consists of heavy cream, egg yolks, and sugar. Can we say heart attack?

I decided on making Alton Brown's version since I generally enjoy his recipes. It wasn't difficult at all and in 15 minutes, I was ready to fill the ramekins.

Unfortunately, the ramekins that came in the creme brulee set were impossibly tiny and I ended up with WAY more custard than ramekins! They might have held all of 2 ounces each. I had reserved 2 ramekins for myself (more on that later), and luckily had a couple of 4 oz ramekins, but even after that, I still had mixture left! I ended up filling a pie plate with the rest. Yes, it's a creme brulee lover's fantasy!

I didn't want to ingest the high quantities of cream and egg yolks so I made my own vegan version out of tofu. Mmmmm.... tofu. You laugh, but it was a tasty substitute! I realize it doesn't look appetizing either but the brown color is from the cinnamon! Jeez.

I also didn't have enough roasting pans for all of the ramekins so I couldn't bake all of them in the water bath as directed. I found out why the water bath is necessary.... without it, the top of the custard browns slightly and it looks almost as if it already had sugar on it. Oh well, I wasn't serving this to anyone so it didn't matter. This one was obviously done with the water bath. I love the little flecks of vanilla beans.
The custards baked up and I left them in the fridge overnight. The following evening, R came over with the torch. We dusted them with sugar and went at it.

He went a little crazy with the sugar so it is more burned-looking than it should be. He gave his seal of approval though. He was ready to eat 3 of them!

Good GF points = 100.

Cheeky's

2009-12-13T17:44:00.000-08:00

I wanted to find a yummy breakfast place to go to as a treat for hiking the previous day. Cheeky's had good reviews online and I was intrigued by the "flight" of bacon. We got there around 10:30 am on Sunday morning and easily had a prime outside seat. BTW, the weather is perfect in the desert right now. Water was promptly provided in a large sealed glass bottle, opened at our table and poured into iced glasses. Fancy.

Their menu changes weekly. I ordered the maple sage sausage hash, parsnip, carmelized onion, apple and poached eggs ($9.00), he ordered the Blondie's egg benedict with hash browns ($13) and a coffee and orange juice. The juice was freshly squeezed and also served out in a what looked like a lab beaker.

We split the flight of bacon. We should have had the waitress tell us which pieces of bacon were which because we weren't able to tell based on taste. Not that they weren't tasty -- they were definitely crispy (a bacon-MUST) but none had enough overwhelming flavor that we could easily determine the flavor. After looking back at the menu online, I'm surprised because none of them overwhelmingly tasted like jalapeno or espresso, and yet, that's what we had! The complete flight was:
- Nodine's Smokehouse
- Applewood
- Jalapeno
- Maple Crusted
- Espresso bacon

But like I said, I have NO idea which ones the jalapeno and espresso ones were.

I liked the hash. Carmelized onions, apple sausage, crunchy parsnips and different types of potatoes with a perfect poached egg on top. I swirled my potatoes into the egg yolk. Mmmmm.

He said he liked the eggs benedict but that the addition of the cheddar scone might have made the meal too heavy. You mean eggs benedict can be light?

Service was attentive, food was good, and we were pleased.

San Francisco Food!

2009-12-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

Koi Palace in Daly City for dim sum. Steph said it was the best... they had a lot of usual things in addition to the typical dim sum fare. You order both from the menu and the few carts that pass by. Although not as "fun", I kind of like the idea of ordering from a menu because then you're sure to get the items you want and they're fresh.

Some favorites were the red bean paste crepes (accidentally ordered because we thought they were something else) and the Shanghai dumplings (notice how there is only one left!).

Other unusual things were tried were the pumpkin red bean mochi:

and the durian puff pastry:

No one cared for this. I thought it was okay but you probably have to like durian to like this (I do).

The place is PACKED so it's a good thing we got there right when they opened at 10 am.

...

We went to The House for Jon's birthday. It's tiny so it's a good thing we had a reservation. Everything was presented beautifully and the service was great. They had 2 or 3 specials for the night but we ended up ordering off the menu.

ahi tuna tartare with roasted nori chips:

Jon had the wasabi noodles with angus flatiron steak and Kameran and Stephanie both had the grilled sea bass (no photos - they came out blurry!).

I ordered two "small" dishes, the deep fried salmon roll:

and the crab cake:

That's some crab cake! I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a pear or a volcano?

Everything was DELICIOUS. Seriously.

...

For dessert, Steph took us to Chaya for chocolate croissant bread pudding:

It was like creme brulee! Caramel ice cream slowly melting on top of a sweet custard dotted with pops of chocolate. Heavenly.

It's not fall without apple pie!

2009-11-23T22:12:00.000-08:00

Part of the Fall season means taking a trip to Julian for apple pie. Now add to the list of apple pies places I've tried: Apple Alley Bakery. Apple Alley is located in a small alley sandwiched between the Julian Drug Store and the Julian Cafe. It is a small shop serving lunch and pies. They also have a selection of other pastries, turnovers, tarts, and cookies. We got the lunch special which included your choice of 1/2 sandwich, soup or salad, chips, and a slice of pie for $8.95. The sandwich was just meh (I got the vegetarian) but it was just enough food so that I was still hungry for pie. They have several different types but these were the two we chose:

Apple Boysenberry

Caramel Pecan Apple

They were good, but I can't compare them to the others since they weren't traditional apple pies and it's been so long since I've had actual pie from Julian Pie Company or Mom's. This may call for a blind taste test in the future... you know, for "research purposes."

Persimmon Pickin'

2009-11-15T19:53:00.000-08:00

I've recently been eating a lot of persimmons. It all started while I was having a conversation with a coworker in the kitchen at work. I was lamenting the loss of delicious summer fruits.

"But persimmons!" she said. "It's persimmons season!"

Another coworker overheard us, and told us you can go picking for persimmons here in San Diego. He sent me a link and we went this afternoon.

The place is called Bar 2 Ranch and it's in Pauma Valley near the base of Palomar Mountain. They hand you a large kitty litter container for use, shears, then off you go!

There are many rows of trees and plenty of fruit when we went. It wasn't too bad for a shorty like me to pick them either.

All the persimmons were Fuyu persimmons but the stand also sold the Hachiya type as well. We picked about half a bucket's worth which was almost 12 pounds. It was 70 cents per pound.

The stand also sold pomegranates ($1/lb!), limes, and these mysterious-looking things:

Can you guess what it is???

If you smelled it you would guess that it's a ...

L E M O N ! ! ! ! !

Yep. Never seen a lemon like THAT before. Crazy, right?

A Presentation of Pumpkin

2009-10-18T18:33:00.000-07:00

I love Fall. It is absolutely my favorite season. I love looking forward to cold nights, being able to layer my clothes and jackets and snuggle in with hot chocolate and a cat (or two). I also love being able to eat or drink anything with pumpkin. It absolutely makes my day.

And so, I bring you a pumpkin-y post!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Biscotti

I used a recipe from epicurious and modified it a little. Having no white chocolate or food processor, I replaced the chocolate with about 1/2 cup finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate chips. I added some more pecans and substituted 1/2 teaspoons each of ground cloves, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg for the pre-mixed pumpkin pie spice (I think it's about the same, but maybe a little spicier). I thought the recipe was fantastic, producing soft biscotti that didn't break my teeth eating them straight up but didn't crumble when dipped in coffee. The sweet/spicy combo was great.

"Spicy Holiday Muffins"

This recipe was nicked from “Just Muffins” compiled by Gaye Hansen, a small red book my parents bought on their honeymoon in Canada. I think they bought it from street vendor, it looks almost hand written and has apparently made some fantastic muffins over the years. This is no exception.

1c milk
1c pumpkin puree
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 c oil
2c flour
1/4c sugar
3tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1/2tsp ground cardamon
1/2tsp cinnamon
1/4tsp nutmeg

topping:
1tbsp butter
1/4c chopped nuts
3tbsp sugar
1/4tsp cinnamon

Mix all the wet, add all the dry. Fill tins 3/4 full and top with melted butter, cinnamon sugar and nuts. Bake for 20-25 min at 400 degrees.

Savory Three-Cheese Pumpkin Soup

As I have mentioned, I love pumpkin. And while it shines in sweet recipes, I have been disappointed with every over-sweetened store-bought box of pumpkin soup. Why can't we deviate a little from the norm and pair this squash with something savory? And delicious? Like cheese?
Pumpkin cheese soup, how could that not be divine? Surely someone has made it before and I should just find the recipe.
However, both AllRecipes AND Cook's Illustrated online let me down. I was bummed. Fine, I'll make it myself! So here's what I did:

4 tbsp butter
1/2 white onion, finely diced
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1.5 tsp kosher salt
2 15-oz cans Libby's Pumpkin puree
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup grated extra sharp white cheddar cheese
1 cup grated parmesean cheese
1 tbsp brown sugar
~1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (fresh is best)

In a large pot, lightly brown the butter and saute the onion and garlic until soft and translucent. Add 6c of water and bring to a boil. Add the salt, pumpkin, and cream and thoroughly mix until homogenous. Whisk in each cheese, one at a time until smooth. At the end stir in the brown sugar and nutmeg (because I was grinding a whole nutmeg, I don't really know how much I actually added, but around 1/2tsp. Flavor to taste). Let barely simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes and serve hot.

This does leave little onion chunks in an otherwise smooth soup. I don't mind them, but maybe you could try pureeing it all before you add the cheese.

Anyway, this produced a rich soup that wasn't too heavy, cheesy or sweet. I've wanted this combination for years so finally I have a recipe!

Best Ever Jalapeno Poppers

2009-08-25T20:51:00.000-07:00

I planted 6 jalapeno plants this summer and they have all thrived. I have a ton of jalapenos and didn't know what to do with them all. In my quest to find a recipe for jalapeno jam or pickled jalapenos, I came across jalapeno poppers. Perfect! Maybe a lot of work but I'm going to make them!

This recipe from All Recipes got 263 reviews with 4.5 out of 5 stars for the "Best Ever Jalapeno Poppers". They were right. Delicious!

4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon bacon bits
3-1/2 ounces jalapeno peppers (about 14 jalapenos), seeded and halved
1/4 cup and 1 tablespoon milk
1/4 cup and 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup and 1 tablespoon dry bread crumbs
2-1/2 cups oil for frying

(I didn't measure the milk, flour, bread crumbs or oil. Just use what you need.)

1. In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, Cheddar cheese and bacon bits. Spoon this mixture into the jalapeno pepper halves.
2. Put the milk and flour into two separate small bowls. Dip the stuffed jalapenos first into the milk then into the flour, making sure they are well coated with each. Allow the coated jalapenos to dry for about 10 minutes.
3. Dip the jalapenos in milk again and roll them through the breadcrumbs. Allow them to dry, then repeat to ensure the entire surface of the jalapeno is coated.
4. In a medium skillet, heat the oil to 365 degrees F (180 degrees C). Deep fry the coated jalapenos 2 to 3 minutes each, until golden brown. Remove and let drain on a paper towel.

Apple Honey Challah

2009-08-23T12:34:00.001-07:00

A new Martha Stewart magazine came out this week and she had a recipe for Apple Honey Challah. Let me say, it was a LOT of waiting. There are 3 times to wait for the dough to rise... I'm not sure if the rising was worth it all because I think some of the bread fermented during all the "waiting". Still tastes great but it took awhile.

1 stick butter
3.5 c bread flour, un-bleached
3/4 c warm water
2/3 c honey
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
2 tsp Active Dry Yeast
2 tsp Coarse Salt
2 green apples, peeled and cut into ¼" thick slices

1) Butter a large bowl and melt 4 tbsp butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat; let cool.

2) Combine 2 tbsp melted butter, the flour, water, 1/3 cup honey, the eggs and yolks, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Mix until dough forms. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 10 minutes.

3) Transfer dough to a buttered bowl and brush with 1 tbsp melted butter. Cover. Let rise in a warm place until dough almost doubles in size. About 1½ hours.

4) Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Pat into an 8½x14" rectangle. Top with apples; knead to incorporate. Return to bowl and brush with the remaining melted butter. Cover. Let rise again until doubled, about 1 hour.

5) Pre-heat oven to 375°F

6) Butter a 9" round cake pan. Roll dough into about a 24" rope and coil in concentric circles and transfer to the pan. Cover and let rise again, about 45 minutes. (My bread, at this step, overflowed out of the pan. Next time I might use this recipe in 2 pans or 1 large pan.)

7) Heat remaining 4 tbsp butter and 1/3 cup honey a saucepan over medium-low heat until butter melts. (This produced quite a bit of “sauce” so I would trim down on the butter and honey.) Brush the dough with the honey-butter mixture. Bake until golden brown and firm, about 30-35 minutes. (190°F internal temperature)

8) Brush the baked and warm challah with the remaining butter-honey mixture. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 30 minutes. Turn out loaf from the pan and let cool.

Apple Bread

2009-08-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

This recipe has been a big hit with everyone! I think I've made somewhere around 5-6 loaves in the past month. I can't get enough of how good it is. The picture doesn't do justice!

Apple Bread

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 Granny Smith apples - peeled and chopped into big chunks

1. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

2. Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Beat eggs, lemon juice and vanilla.

3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir until moistened.

4. Stir in apples.

Topping

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

6. Combine flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly.

7. Spoon half of the batter into a buttered 9x5 loaf pans. Sprinkle with half of the topping. Spoon remaining batter into the pan and sprinkle with the remaining topping.

8. Bake for 55 minutes at 350 degrees.

Hazelnut Mushroom Rice Pilaf

2009-08-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

I made this Hazelnut Mushroom Rice Pilaf for Kameran's birthday last year and I figured I'd make it again to go along with the Steak and Ale Pie. I really like this recipe. It gives a good balance of texture and taste. Me liking mushrooms so much though, I add more mushrooms and about a cup more rice to the recipe.